Father Casimir Wyszynski

through the Lord’s Passion, we combine our prayers and pious deeds with the salutary ordinance of the Holy Apostolic See. Often, we assist the souls who repay God’s justice in the fires of Purgatory, by saying with heartfelt compassion: ‘Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.’ Let us not forget to repeat frequently thiswitness to our righteous love of God and neighbor.” 30 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger laments that in our time the word “soul” is sometimes placed on the list of forbidden words. At- tempts have beenmade to prove that segmenting the human per- son finds no place in Christianity, because it contradicts the unity between the Creator and His creation. The cardinal stresses that the word soul in Christianity expresses the fruit of faith: “[it] ex- presses the uniqueness of the human being intended by the Cre- ator; man is such a creation in which spirit meets matter and forms a totality. By pushing theword soul aside, we inevitably fall into materialism, which does not exalt the body, but deprives it of its dignity.” 31 Vatican II teaches thus: “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a pu- rification—or immediate and everlasting damnation” ( CCC 1022). “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness nec- essary to enter the joy of heaven” (1030). “From the very begin- ning, the Church has honored thememory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead” (1032). Father Casimir’s niece, Michalina Ignatowska, a Sister of Saint Clare, while testifying about the life of her uncle, recalled her trip 30 The above fragment was omitted in the recent publication of Gwiazda zaranna [Morning Star] . The excerpt is translated by Father Z. Proczek, MIC. 31 J. Ratzinger, Bóg jest blisko nas , Kraków, 2002, 169-170. 80 Z YGMUNT P ROCZEK , MIC, P H D