Mormons baptize, Catholics pray to Mary and all the saints to guide the recently deceased into heaven... I don't think it's that unusual. But under that belief, you have to believe that someone like Hitler could very well be in Heaven. And American evangelical protestants tend to want to collect your ticket to heaven before you die...
Just because you pray for someone to get into heaven after they die doesn't mean they will. Prayer isn't a command to God.
I'm not sure how you could infer that what I said means I believe prayer is a command to God.
The priest who taught me basic Catholic theology basically said there was an in between state where your soul is not in heaven or hell... but it's not purgatory in the sense that most people think. Instead, he believed that when you die, you are in the dark... and depending on your faithfulness and the type of life you live, you can find the love and light of God. For those who are faithful and live good lives will find heaven very easily.
He basically believed that there was no hell like we think of it.. fire and brimstone and a horned devil tormenting you for eternity... but that "hell" is actually wandering around aimlessly in this black void without seeing the light of God and heaven. You know it is there, but you cannot find it... and it is this absence of God that torments the soul.
So Christians pray, on All Saints Day, for example, for God and the saints (all those in heaven) to help guide the lost souls towards the light of God.
When the final judgment comes, those who are in heaven and those living on earth that have been faithful will enter the kingdom of God. Those who are not in heaven or shunned God on earth in the end times will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity.
Until then, everyone who dies has the chance of making it to heaven, no matter how awful they were in this life. It's just that those that didn't know God in this life will have a harder time finding him in the afterlife.
