Whatever may be the language of the world, or the cry of passions, with regard to this point of doctrine, we must either admit it, or else entirely renounce the Christian faith; for no one of its dogmas is more clearly announced, or more expressly taught.
God, in his infinite mercy, has been pleased to furnish us with the means of escaping from the abyss of sin, when we have had the misfortune of falling into it, viz.: a true repentance joined to the sacrament of penance; or, when it is not in our power to recur to this sacrament, the same sincere repentance, founded on the love of God above all things, with the desire to do so.
But, when a sinner has received the grace of justification, by approaching the sacrament; he does not always receive the remission of all the pains due to his sins. This is an article of faith, set down in express terms by the Council of Trent. Sess. 14, Canon 12.
The eternal pain is remitted without any restriction; but there generally remains a temporal pain to be undergone for a longer or shorter time, according to the nature of the sin, and the dispositions of the penitent: and this necessary atonement must be made either in this life or in the next.
On this truth were founded the severe canonical penances formerly inflicted by the Church on repenting sinners. Three, seven, ten, even fifteen or twenty years fasting on bread and water, privations and humiliations even for a whole life, were sometimes prescribed for one single sin; and even these were not thought to exceed the degree of satisfaction due to the justice of God.
If the Church, at this present time, treats sinners with greater indulgence and mercy, it is not because, she considers them less guilty, or their faults less deserving of punishment: sin is always the same — always equally deserving of punishment.
Those who die without having made the necessary atonement shall have to endure long and severe pains in purgatory. Even venial sin, not expiated in this world, will be punished in purgatory.
If, then, the pain due to one sin is such, what must be the immense debt of a sinner who has passed whole years in the most criminal habits, and to whom we may apply the words of the Royal Prophet ; He has multiplied his iniquities above the number of the hairs of his head.
