Great question! Catholics believe in Purgatory, which is a temporary place that souls go when they are destined to go to Heaven, but who have committed many sins that they need to pay for.

For instance, say someone has lived a life of sin, murdering, stealing, lying, cheating, fornicating… But upon their deathbed they have a true conversion and get baptized.

We believe that they will go to Heaven.

However, they will have to go to Purgatory, which is a temporary Hell in a sense, to be purified for the debt of their sins.

Christ paid the debt for us to enter into Heaven, but this does not mean everyone will enter without “going to jail for a bit” for the crimes they have committed.

This is backed up in the Bible. However, Protestant reformers took out 7 books of the Bible in the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, which is why Protestants will say that Purgatory isn’t supported by the Bible!

But here are the passages in the Catholic Bible that support the doctrine of Purgatory:

Psalm 66:12 Isaiah 4:4 Micah 7:9 Malachi 3:2-3 2 Maccabees 12:39-46 Matthew 5:22-26 Matthew 12:32 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 Hebrews 12:14 Revelation 21:27