It is a ‘place’ to purge the attachment to sin and the temporal effects of sin. The word purgatory comes from the word purge. It is the final purification so that one’s soul can enter heaven unblemished. Purgatory is an intermediate state of purification between death and heaven for those who die with venial sins for an amount of time appropriate to the amount and severity of the sins as deemed by God to remove the temporal effects of sin.
