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DECREE CONCERNING
PURGATORY.
Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, from the
sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught, in sacred councils,
and very recently in this oecumenical Synod, that there is a Purgatory, and
that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, - Page 233 -
but principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar; the holy
Synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavour that the sound doctrine
concerning Purgatory, transmitted by the holy Fathers and sacred councils, be
believed, maintained, taught, and every where proclaimed by the faithful of
Christ. But let the more difficult and subtle questions, and which tend not to
edification, and from which for the most part there is no increase of piety, be
excluded from popular discourses before the uneducated multitude. In like
manner, such things as are uncertain, or which labour under an appearance of
error, let them not allow to be made public and treated of. While those things
which tend to a certain kind of curiosity or superstition, or which savour of
filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling-blocks of the faithful.
But let the bishops take care, that the suffrages of the faithful who are
living, to wit the sacrifices of masses, prayers, alms, and other works of
piety, which have been wont to be performed by the faithful for the other
faithful departed, be piously and devoutly performed, in accordance with the
institutes of the church; and that whatsoever is due on their behalf, from the
endowments of testators, or in other way, be discharged, not in a perfunctory
manner, but diligently and accurately, by the priests and ministers of the
church, and others who are bound to render this (service).
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