Purgatory and prayer

Traditionally, Catholicism tries to prooftext the dogma of Purgatory by citing certain passages which are taken to involve prayers for the dead (cf. 2 Mac 12:43-46; 2 Tim 1:16-18).

There are a number of problems with this appeal, but for now I’ll focus on just one in particular. Many different religions have prayers for the dead, whether Catholic or pagan or Hindu or Buddhist or Shinto, &c. Yet different religions have different eschatologies. What it means for a pagan or Buddhist to pray for the dead is not what it means for a Catholic to pray for the dead. For example, Buddhist might pray that his departed loved one enter Nirvana, not heaven. Be delivered from the wheel of reincarnation, not the pangs of Purgatory.

As such, you can’t infer Purgatory from prayers for the dead. For divergent conceptions of the afterlife are equally convergent with prayers for the dead.