Pious associations or confraternities in the Catholic Church, which have as their purpose to assist in every possible way the poor souls in purgatory. The Catholic doctrine concerning purgatory, the condition of the poor souls after death, the communion of saints, and the satisfactory value of our good works form the basis of these associations, although they were called into life by pure Christian charity for one's neighbour which reaches beyond the grave. This brotherly love was the distinguishing mark of Christ's Church from the very beginning; the first Christian communities and the whole Church of the early centuries down to the time of the catacombs was one grand purgatorial society. The clearest evidence for this is supplied by the prayers for the dead in the oldest liturgies and breviary prayers, and by the earliest Christian inscriptions.
An excerpt from New Advent (here)
A Jesuit Ministry
An excerpt from Wikipedia (here)
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