THE POPE IN PURGATORY UNTIL THE END OF TIME

It beggars belief to think that someone could be in Purgatory for all time.  I was astounded when I learned that when one of the three shepherds at Fatima asked Our Lady as to the eternal fate of a girl they knew who had recently died and if she'd gone to Heaven, Our Lady replied that the girl had gone to Purgatory for all time. Time as we know it will cease and there are souls who are going to be in Purgatory 'til that time when ironically time will be no more. They will be there for all the ages to come, and until Our Lord slays the Anti-Christ with His breath, and until after the destruction of the world which will come shortly after Our Lord annihilates the Anti-Christ. 

There has been at least one pope who has been sentenced to Purgatory for all time. The awesome responsibility of the Petrine Office means that the salvation of millions upon millions of souls is dependent on the decisions made by Peter's successor and the sins of a pope have such far-reaching consequences that a pope's purgatorial purification is severe. Once in the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo, there was a discussion among Padre Pio and the other Franciscan friars as to the Pope who had gone to Purgatory 'til the end of the world. Padre Pio leant tacit agreement to that fact that this Pope was still in Purgatory. But Pio didn't bemoan the lot of this pope. One of the friars said of the pope, "Poor thing", and Pio could not agree that the pope was an unfortunate, rather he stressed that the pope was certain of his salvation and that he'd like such an arrangement. He said to the friar who had felt sorry for the pope,  "If only it were the will of God that we, too, could have such certainty of salvation, I would agree to it from this very moment."

The name of the Pope is not given in the book written by Pio's great friend and assistant, Padre Alessio Parente. But the mere concept that it is possible for pope to be in Purgatory for all ages is in itself stupefying, if not gravely instructive of how popes are held accountable.  

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This post was informed by Padre Alessio Parente's book, The Holy Souls "Viva Padre Pio" which you may buy in The Spirit Daily bookstore. 

Classic painting of St Peter's Basilica executed by Viviano Codazzi in 1630.