At yesterday’s press conference on “Dignitas Infinita”, I asked DDF Prefect Cardinal Fernández: “If man has infinite dignity, how can he be condemned to the eternal suffering of Hell? And why are original sin and its effects never mentioned in the document?” His response below: pic.twitter.com/6odajldIq7
— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) April 9, 2024
(To see the statement enlarged click on it and it will open in a new window. Then click on the text.)
Years ago on a Cursillo weekend, I spent several hours in the stairwell late at night discussing hell with a young woman who didn't believe there was a hell or, if there was, that no one went there. At the end of the evening, she had changed her mind.
Again, many years ago I attended the funeral of a diocesan priest who killed himself after public accusations of abuse which appeared to be true. The homilist, a former pastor of mine, also cast doubt on hell. Well, not on hell exactly. Catholic doctrine requires that we believe hell exists. But hey! Nobody goes there right? How could heaven's Pillsbury Doughboy refuse cinnamon buns to anyone (except maybe Judas)? Sad to say, my pastor and the friend of the priest didn't even ask us to pray for him. What a tragedy and failure for the man he called friend who needed our prayers and fasting that he had an instant of repentance after pulling the trigger.
And now we have the faith wreckers at the Vatican once again moving the ball forward toward the modernist and relativist newChurch where doctrine is watered down with the apparent goal of eliminating it altogether bit by bit.
Robert Royal, member of the "papal posse" commented on the document pretty much summarizing it: "What is good is not new, and what is new is not good." That could be the motto of this papacy and its legacy.
Indeed! The latest document from Rome, dressed in the trappings of orthodoxy, spreads the poison of relativism and the patently absurd belief that hell is empty.
Good grief!
Was the Blessed Mother a liar at Fatima when she told the children that many people go to hell because they have no one to pray for them? Can we draw from her statement the conclusion that no one goes to hell? Was the vision of souls tumbling into hell like snowflakes just a horror movie to terrorize the children? Is Mary a sadistic mother who enjoys torturing little ones?
Fernandez says that the "affirmation of the possibility of condemnation to Hell is above all a kind of cult (veneration) of human freedom." Cults are bad right? Is that language deliberate with the intent to cast aspersions on those benighted, rigid, pharisaical Catholics who take God's words literally? Was Jesus joking when he warned that the road was narrow and few would find it and that many would be cast into Gehenna where there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth? Do these Vatican spokesmen have any faith at all?
Francis and Fernandez seem to be trying to convince the world that sin is irrelevant to our final end and repentance is unnecessary because we have "infinite dignity."
Really? Do we?
Sorry, but only God has infinite dignity. Humanity definitely has dignity, but only because God has gifted us with it. We never lose that dignity which is why God respects the freedom He gave us -- a freedom which even allows us to choose to reject Him.
Pray for all those who are teetering on the brink. I don't want anyone to go to hell. But if no one does anyway, why should I give up chocolate or skip a meal or pray a novena or offer my sufferings for their eternal salvation? How do you think Pope Francis or Cardinal Fernandez would answer that question?
Check out these articles on Dignitas Infinita. They're worth a read!
- Why ‘Infinite Dignity’ falls short -- Phil Lawler's take on the document and its "seamless garment" approach that dilutes the seriousness of intrinsic moral evils by conflating them with prudential judgments
- A Successor for the St. Gallen Mafia? -- Julia Meloni's description of the document building an earthly Utopia based on modernism and "evolution" of doctrine
I'm not Catholic, but when Catholics started denying purgatory is a place back in the early 2000s I saw that as a precursor to denying hell. After all purgatory is just a hell that you eventually get out of. So if that's not a place but some process that could even be instant and doesn't really involve literal fire, that already amounts to a denial of hell.
ReplyDeletePurgatory also serves as buffer against denying hell. What need to deny hell to keep Christians from thinking they will go there when you can just say Christians go to purgatory until burning off the last farthing and only non-Christians go to hell for all eternity?
I'm not saying purgatory is necessary to save Prots from denying hell; Prots think entirely differently due yo Sola Scriptura. But when Catholics water down purgatory hell goes with it for them.
Mr trombulo
Deletere: "Catholics started denying purgatory is a place back in the early 2000s "
Catholics who deny purgatory are called Protestants.
God bless
Richard W Comerford
He meant the ones who say there is purgatory but its not a "place"
DeleteMs Anonymous:
Delete"Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions." - Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 AD
Whether Protestants, in or out of the Catholic Church, deny that Purgatory as a place or otherwise said denial is still a heresy.
God bless
Richard W Comerford
Mr trumbolo
DeleteYou are applying false Protestant theology to the One True Faith.
God bless
Richard W Comerford
Its funny Mr. Comeford is the one defending this new Vatican II Sect document that every individual has infinite dignity, and yet wants to pretend the Vatican II cult holds to purgatory being a "place" because (dum dum dum) the pre-Vatican II Catholic Encyclopedia referencing pre-Vatican II doctrine calls it a "place." Jejejejejejejejejejeje!
Delete"And now we have the faith wreckers at the Vatican once again moving the ball forward toward the modernist and relativist newChurch where doctrine is watered down with the apparent goal of eliminating it altogether bit by bit." Why would a Catholic consider the magisterial hierarchy in the Vatican to be "faith wreckers"? With this in mind, what do you think Pope Leo XIII meant/prophesied when he referred to the laying on of impious hands to her "most sacred possessions"? What are they? He seemed to expect the faithful to know if they were to pray it? What is and how would the faithful know "they" had raised a "throne of abominable impiety"? "These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the "Spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered." Original form of the St. Michael Prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII, taken from The Raccolta, 1930, Benziger Bros., pp. 314-315.
ReplyDeleteIf everybody goes to Heaven, either we are now living in a utopia, or moral actions have no meaning. Adolf Eichman and St. Teresa of Avila are sipping tea together as we speak.
ReplyDeleteSt. Vincent Ferrer recounts a monk who died and returned to tell his bishop that the monk and St. Bernard had died at the same time and both went directly to Heaven. Another three souls in that timeframe went to purgatory. And 33,000 souls went to hell. Ratio is 6600 going to hell for every 1 soul that made it to Heaven. Now it makes sense why Jesus said "do not pull up the weeds lest the wheat be pulled up at the same time". If there were only a few weeds, not likely. If 6600 weeds to 1 wheat, very likely. "How narrow the road to salvation and how few even find it"...
ReplyDeleteGod wants 100% of his creatures to attain Heaven; they're created for Heaven, but God's standards are exceedingly high and He does not grade on a curve. People need to realize that not only does Hell exist and there are souls there right now (as seen by Sister Lucia at Fatima), but more importantly, HELL IS THE DEFAULT. This is why eternal salvation -- being found worthy to enter Heaven -- is of paramount importance through two millennia of the Church (every sacrament and devotion of the Church is designed to assist us to Heaven), until recent times when prelates who want to excuse their own sin, say there are no consequences.
If hell is empty and "everyone goes to Heaven", then the Church becomes pointless and the bishops and priests become worthless and should go do something productive like drive for Uber. The people who espouse this don't realize they're cutting off the branch they're sitting on!
In reality, good bishops and good priests are of the highest value on earth precisely when they assist the rest of us towards eternal salvation, because that is the only thing that lasts, after we have ended our time on earth and let go of everything material.
St. Faustina's Vision of Hell. "Today, I was led by an angel to the Chasms of Hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is!
ReplyDeleteThank you
Leo