>>17988855
>It's not charity if the expectation is that it'll allow you to buy one's way out of purgatory
The communion of the saints is a notion upheld by every christian denomination (even the reformers didn't challenge it, they just said it shouldn't be a focus of devotion). It means that every good work of charity ultimately helps everyone, both on Earth and in heaven. So by doing corporal works of charity on Earth, like giving material support to the church, you can help the souls in purgatory.

The catechism explains:

>953 Communion in charity. In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself." "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." "Charity does not insist on its own way." In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, *the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all.*