I am an Anthropology student (my emphasis is in Archaeology) with an interest in medieval England. Because of my focus, I find myself very drawn to understanding the Catholic faith. I have been to a few masses and have a lot of respect for the Catholic church for many reasons, not least among which being that they are one of the very few Christian faiths left with a logically consistent doctrine (not to put down other faiths, I extend my greatest respect to any person of real faith in an increasingly faithless world).

That being said, I am preparing a paper for one of my classes, and would very much appreciate it if someone here could give me an accurate (and as complete as possible) picture of Catholic beliefs regarding the soul after the death of the body.

Being somewhat ignorant of Catholic doctrine in this area I would ask for anything you could explain, but I am specifically interested in knowing what happens to the good, the bad, and those that are somewhere in between; what becomes of those who had no opportunity for learning and acting on essential truths in this life; are there stages in the after life, and what those may entail; what people will be doing; and what is the nature of their existence (is there a resurrection of the body or just the spirit, do we maintain memories and relationships from this life, etc.)

I thank you in advance for your responses.

with gratitude,
-Dan

Thank you very much, that was incredibly useful. One thing I could not find, however, was what heaven would actually be like, and what people do there. Is there an accepted catholic view on this, or is this generally viewed as a mystery?

Click here for Catholic enc's article on heaven