CONGREGATIO DIVINUM CARITAS

With the feast of All Souls (Nov 2nd), here are a few quotes explaining why it is that Catholics pray for the departed...

"Communion with the dead. In full consciousness of this communication of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins she offers her suffrages for them. Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective."
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 958 

"Of all prayers, the most meritorious, the most acceptable to God, are prayers for the dead, because they imply all the works of charity, both corporal and spiritual."
- St. Thomas Aquinas

"Unless there were, in the word of God, an absolute prohibition of prayer for the departed, how should we go on praying for those whom we love until they were out of sight, and then cease on the instant, as if 'out of sight, out of mind' were a Christian duty? How should we not rather follow the soul to the eternal throne, with the apostle's [Paul's] prayer 'the Lord grant that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.' (II Timothy 1:18 The departed are included in our Eucharistic prayer, '...by the merits and death of the Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in His blood, we and all thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benenfits of His passion.' That we have for the time no more to do with those who loved us here, and whom we loved, must be false, because it is so contrary to love. It belongs to the Communion of Saints, that they shall pray and long for us, who art still on the stormy sea of this world; and that we, on our side should pray for such things as God in His goodness wills to bestow upon them."
- Edward B Pusey