I read the Anastasis blog quite often, as I am also interested in ecumenism with the Eastern churches. It's the blog of the Holy Resurrection Monastery a Byzantine Catholic monastery in California. Here's their about page. Anyway, I just wanted to pass along this post, which I found interesting:

[T]he key to understanding the Catholic teaching on "temporal punishments" is to realize that these punishments are not external acts of divine vengeance but are the existential consequences of our sins to ourselves and to others. Since God has willed that we suffer these consequences, they are and must be an expression of divine justice.


Catholics and Protestants alike must acknowledge that a clarification of doctrine is now taking place in the Catholic Church with regards to the notion of "the temporal punishments of sin." This clarification has been authoritatively expressed in the CCC:

http://hrm.ductape.net/blog/index.ph...Purgatory.html

Rusty,

Originally posted by tizzidale

I read the Anastasis blog quite often, as I am also interested in ecumenism with the Eastern churches. It's the blog of the Holy Resurrection Monastery a Byzantine Catholic monastery in California. Here's their about page. Anyway, I just wanted to pass along this post, which I found interesting:



http://hrm.ductape.net/blog/index.ph...Purgatory.html

Trent Session 14, 9 states "It [the council] teaches furthermore that the liberality of the divine munificence is so great that we are able through Jesus Christ to make satisfaction to God the Father not only by punishments voluntarily undertaken by ourselves to atone for sins, or by those imposed by the judgment of the priest according to the measure of our offense, but also, and this is the greatest proof of love, by the temporal afflictions imposed by God and borne patiently by us. "

It is clear that the punishments are imposed by:

The priest
Ourselves
God

These punishments are inflicted external punishments, and not the "existential consequences of sin", as Fr. Kimel says.