Question from Anon on 2/4/2008:
What is a spirit? A disembodied agent? If spirits are disembodied how are they individuated? Are they delimited according to qualities of character a person possessed in their mortal lives? If a spirit was jovial and gregarious in its mortal incarnation is it distinguished from its fellow according to the degree to which he was sober and aloof? Could a person change dispositions in heaven without changing who they are?
Answer by Richard Geraghty on 2/9/2008:
Dear Anon,
The Church teaches that angels are pure spirits, meaning that they are entities which have no body but are intelligence and will. When humans die they will also be spirits of intelligence and will. but they will get back their bodies on Judgment day. Now as you indicated in a way, on earth men have formed characters which are good, middling and evil. These virtues and vices stick with us. The good go immediately to heaven with the virtues. The middling go to purgatory to have their characters cleaned up. And the evil go to hell where they will even be nastier than they were on earth.
Dr. Geraghty
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