I was aged 22 when I attended a Roman Catholic church service. I clearly recall my first thought after the service - Why did we pray for the dead? Before this experience, I had never heard of purgatory, and had never known that people prayed for the dead. To me it didn't make sense to pray for those who had died - either they had been saved and were with Christ, or they did not have a right relationship with God and were eternally separated from him. I needed to know more.