In view of God’s loving provisions for the living as well as for those who have died, how blasphemous it is for clergymen to claim that God is tormenting dead persons in a purgatory or “hellfire.” And how cruel and heartless it is for these men to collect money from bereaved relatives and friends on the pretense of helping persons or souls in one of these imaginary places.

An example of lack of concern for those who have lost loved ones is a tract published by the Franciscan Mass League, issued at St. Francis Friary in New York city. It encourages the reader to “Enroll yourself now in the Mass League for the Living.” “Do not depend too much on those whom you leave behind to assist you, when you fall into the Hands of the Lord in judgment,” the brochure reads, “‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ will be the lot of most of us.”

Then the pamphlet urges the enrollment of “departed” relatives and friends in a Mass League, “the usual offerings for memberships” being “For the living, $5.00. This membership continues perpetually after life; For the deceased, $2.00.” “Your dear departed ones may be suffering in Purgatory on your account,” says the tract. A quotation is made from an apocryphal book, which is no part of the inspired Scriptures: “‘It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins’ (2 Mach. xii, 46).”

The clergy, by teaching falsely concerning the state of the dead and by taking advantage of the sorrow of persons for their loved ones who have died, have taken money by playing on the fears and helpless feelings of the survivors. They are therefore actually guilty of extortion. They are lying, misrepresenting God and taking away from the living the hope and comfort the Scriptures give.