I see Papa Frankie is at it again. He gave an interview to an Italian Magazine two days ago in which he said that, 'I personally believe that hell is empty'. Which is just shorthand for saying that he does not believe it exists, although he does not dare come right out and say so. Yet another in a long line of heresies by this particular gentleman. In saying this he contradicts Scripture and the Teachings of the Church for the last 2,000 years. This is the second time he uttered this particular heresy, he said the same thing back in 2018 which got widespread media attention if you recall. Another heresy he said sinning souls just disappear (so denying the Doctrine that souls are Eternal).
Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. IV. HELL 1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell." 1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs. 1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."618 Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."619 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":621 Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen.622 But anyway I didn't mention this to go into another rant about yet another one of Papa Frankie's heretical goings on. Tow nights ago I had a very vivid dream about hell. I dreamt I was in a Religious House were a group of priests was trying to exorcise a gentleman who actually levitated int the air and died during the exorcism. I saw his soul enter hell. It was dark but lit up by a gloomy light of constant lightening bolts which represented, I think, the Wrath of God. In my dream this gentleman joined the end of a long procession of souls who walked through Hell two by two. From ahead came a voice which cried out without end, 'woe ! woe! woe!! This crying annoyed me but a voice told me that the cried were right, that this truly was a place of great woe and I shouldn't complain that this really was a place of constant woe. Then as I looked up I saw several large powerful demons who looked down on the souls below and from time to time reached down to pluck out souls and give them some, 'Special treatment'. As I watched one demon reached down picked up the soul I was with and before my eyes sawed it in half.
@padraig this is actually the third time that Bergoglio has uttered this particular heresy. He had said a similar aberration in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Perfil last year.
—¿Cuál es su propia interpretación del infierno y del paraíso? ¿Y qué les pasa a las personas que van al infierno y qué a las que van al paraíso? —El infierno no es un lugar, si uno va a asistir al Juicio final, y ve las caras de los que van al infierno, se asusta. Si uno lee a Dante, se asusta. Pero son representaciones mediáticas. El infierno es un estado, hay gente que vive en un infierno continuamente. Esto no lo digo por la gente que sufre, el pueblo que sufre, sino por aquellos que se hacen un mundo de autorreferencialidad mal o enfermizo, y terminan viviendo en un infierno. El infierno es un estado, es un estado del corazón, del alma, de una postura frente a la vida, a los valores, a la familia, a todo. Hay gente que vive en un infierno porque se lo busca, hay otros que no, que son sufridos. ¿Y quién va al infierno, a ese infierno, a ese estado? Ya se va viviendo desde aquí. Si usted me pregunta cuánta gente hay en el infierno, yo le contesto con una escultura famosa de la catedral de Deslé, no sé si del siglo XI o siglo IX, sur de Francia, hay un capitel famoso, las columnas tienen capiteles, que era un modo de catequizar en aquella época a través de la pintura y la escultura. Y el capitel ese tiene a Judas ahorcado y el diablo tirando para abajo, y del otro lado tienen al Buen Pastor, a Jesús que agarra a Judas y se lo lleva a babucha con una sonrisa irónica. ¿Qué quiere decir eso? Que la salvación es más fuerte que la condenación. Ese capitel es una catequesis que nos tiene que hacer pensar. La misericordia de Dios está siempre a nuestro lado, y lo que Dios quiere es siempre estar con su gente, con sus hijos y no que se le vayan. https://www.perfil.com/noticias/per...con-las-finanzas-por-jorge-fontevecchia.phtml https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5964
Pope Francis has some very exotic ideas about Hell and the devil. Didn't he say before that Christ on the cross became devil? The cross, then, he stated, "for some people is a badge of belonging: 'Yes, I wear the cross to show that I am a Christian'". And "it's fine", but "not just as a badge, as if it were a team, the badge of a team"; but, Francis said, «as a memory of him who became sin, who became a devil, a serpent, for us; he lowered himself to the point of totally annihilating himself." (Pope Francis, in Morning Meditation in the Chapel of the Domus Sactae Marthae, pp. 2, April 4, 2017) Source: Google translated from https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/cotidie/2017/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20170404_nel-segno-della-croce.pdf
As much as Bergoglio was a promoter of false ecumenism during his time as a cardinal, it still seems somewhat unbelievable that he is the same person who now governs the church and calls into question the dogmas of the church with his statements.
I think the only way you could really believe there is no hell would be if you did not believe there is such a thing as sin, or evil, only, 'Wrong choices', which can be fixed. The only way you could believe souls could somehow, 'vanish', would be if you did not really believe in Eternal Life. Interesting views, but none of them Catholic. Papa Frankie is coming down with interesting views, loads and loads and loads of them, none of them Catholic.
But I do my best not to think about Papa Frankie. The less I think about the guy the happier I find I am.
All we have to do is look around us to see the horror of life on earth when people are killing, stealing, lying, badmouthing, looting, hating and of course war is literally hell on earth; to get a insight for what hell has to be like without everyone keeping the guidelines given to us by God in the 10 Commandments. And that is even without considering the fires and other horrors told to us by numerous saints as well as the three children at Fatima. Being vague about hell is rubbish and very protestant. Wishful thinking without considering the consequences. We have to pray for Protestant souls in Purgatory because they are left to suffer without any help of comfort because the prods don't believe in Purgatory God help them.
I disagree, at least in my experience protestants ( pentecostals and baptists) constantly terrify everyone with stories of hell, demonic activity in daily life and speculate whom or which groups are heading to hell. Maybe in other countries its otherwise, and protestants avoid this topic?
I wonder if you mean Pentecostals and born again Christians who do talk a lot about hell for the backsliders. These are a more modern version of fallen away souls who were commonly known as Protestant. I loved Mary Baxter God rest her soul. She was an absolute treasure and must have called thousands if not millions of non Catholic Christians (Protestants) to repent of their ways and return to God and His ways. Peace. Before the prods took down the ancient Roman Catholic Faith during and after the Second Vatican Council, I used to hear a lot about the Protestant Pastors or Vicars spending their sermon time telling the people how the Pope was the anti-Christ, and practising Catholics were the minions of the devil. Rome was the whore of Babylon. Nowadays Roma has become indisquinshable from Canterbury as far as I can see. But we wait for the Lord to come and restore His Church founded on Peter.
I see many people bring up the "good thief" while claiming that hell is nearly empty. I think we should ponder a little about the good thief. He was actually practicing a very Catholic conversion at his death. Number one, he repented, obviously. Number two, he united his horrific death to Jesus by accepting it as just punishment for his sins and his suffering was great!, number three, he confessed his crimes with sorrow, number four, he defended Jesus to an evil person thereby proclaiming his belief, number five, he asked Jesus for mercy which he then received. After the Church was established of course, he would have had to do these things in the prescribed way with the Church, since Jesus was not physically hanging next to him, but you can see he has the Desire of Baptism, he has repented, he has offered up his suffering realizing it was deserved, and asked God for mercy NOT to relieve his suffering or save his physical life, but for his eternal life. If he had survived, he would of course have joined the Church and joyfully received the sacraments. So although many people think he did nothing to receive the gift of the Kingdom himself, they are wrong. His required participation in his salvation was great, something we all must do, hopefully not at the last moment!
Whilst not officially a saint of the Church the Good Thief is often known as St Dismas https://www.newmanministry.com/saints/saint-dismas In art the Good thief is always shown on Christ's right hand side - also Christ's head inclined to the right as acceptance of the the actions of the good thief. The good thief is a brilliant example of how God works for he repented from a life of thieving and robbing (banditry) yet stole Paradise. Our God has a unique way of working with souls.
The impenitent thief was known as Gestas or Gesmas in Apocryphal writings - he is always shown as being on the left side of Christ with the devil on his shoulder and Christ looking away. One would have to conclude that the Bad thief was not saved.
I remember one of Anne Catherine Emmerich's visions that says that in the good thief's childhood, he was washed in the same river that Our Lady washed the infant Jesus. Then, it would be like a grace in childhood that can fully emerge at the time of death when he has a contrite and humble heart.
The Good Thief story throws up some interesting theological debates - Protestants claim the good thief was saved by faith alone therefore water baptism not needed, also nullifies the idea of purgatory because the good thief was promised paradise that day. So the questions are - When did Jesus establish the sacrament of baptism? Is Paradise the same as Heaven?
