Can baptized Catholics go to hell?

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Agreed. Trying to trick God is lightyears more ineffectual than my 5 year old trying to trick me that he didn’t get into the cookies as the crumbs are all over his hands and face while his teeth are pasted in chocolate. 😄
 
joyful said:
If they stop going to church, stop praying, etc… but still believe in God?
Or will their purgatory just be more intense?
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If they die in mortal sin they go to hell.

If they don’t die in mortal sin they go to Purgatory/Heaven.
 
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Maximilian75 said:
  • lies
  • knows lying is a mortal sin, contrary to God’s will
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Wait a minute, not all lying is a mortal sin.
There are three kinds of lies.
  1. Jocose lie-- lie told in a joke.
  2. Officious lie-- lie told to get a benefit or save yourself or a friend.
  3. Malicious lie-- lie told to harm someone.
A jocose and officious lie rarely ever are bigger than a venial sin, but a malicious lie, is usually a mortal sin.
Don’t get me wrong, all lies are sins, and therefore very bad, but not all are mortal sins.
 
That’s all fine and dandy. My point was basically that everyone on Earth bickers about what God wants/doesn’t want. Since God won’t set the record straight, I’m not sure how one even moves into the area of this sends you to hell or this doesn’t discussion, especially if full knowledge is a requirement.
 
I’ll add to that, too. If we are all to believe in an infinitely merciful God, how is it that His mercy only applies to souls while they are occupying human bodies? The Catholic teaching that if you die with a “mortal” sin on your soul you are bound straight to hell…well, it doesn’t seem exactly a faith-filled approach to just how merciful God is.
 
Yes I would agree. I deffenitely don’t see God as infinitely merciful, quite the opposite. The average person is given around 70 years where they can receive mercy, then nothing forever after that. I would describe God as very limited mercy when you think about it that way.
 
joyful said:
I mean we all sin, but say you get hit by a car after you just lie to someone, does that mean that person would go to hell?
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I think the answer lies in the Church’s answer in the Catechism concerning those who commit suicide. This, of course, is a sin in which a person could die by the very act of committing a mortal sin (if some psychological condition didn’t remove their culpability).

This is what the Church says about that:
Suicide

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.

Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

In other words, it is possible that God could “provide the opportunity for salutary repentance” for someone who seems to us to have died not only in mortal sin but by the very act of committing a mortal sin. The Church does not teach that anyone ought to presume that such an opportunity will be offered, since it is not for us to sit in judgment as if we were God to judge either in someone’s favor or against them, as we are not totally privy to the Divine Wisdom, Justice and Mercy. Having said that, however, the Church teaches that it is certainly OK to maintain the hope that some particular person who seems to have died in a lost state will be saved. The Church prays for such persons.

Accepting the Gospel, seeking baptism and availing ourselves of the life of the Church is the normal way offered to us to seek the grace necessary for salvation. We should not be so presumptuous as to presume that we ourselves will be offered any other way. We should also not presume, however, that anyone else will not.
 
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wkj_123 said:
Yes I would agree. I deffenitely don’t see God as infinitely merciful, quite the opposite. The average person is given around 70 years where they can receive mercy, then nothing forever after that. I would describe God as very limited mercy when you think about it that way.
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The God I believe in doesn’t shut down His mercy just because a soul has left the human body it inhabited. Hence, my lack of belief in the concept of hell. However, it would seem that is the way the God Catholics believe in operates.
 
Purgatory doesn’t factor into what I was discussing. I am referring to the souls the Catholic Church believes are immediately sent to hell.
 
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Not all lies are mortal.

Lying under oath=mortal.

Telling somebody they don’t look fat in that outfit when they actually kinda do=not mortal.
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Don’t kid yourself. A lie is a lie. They are all mortal.

Don’t lie at all. Then you don’t have to worry about it.
 
No, not all lies are mortal. From the Baltimore Catechism:
Q. 1308. How can we know the degree of sinfulness in a lie?
A. We can know the degree of sinfulness in a lie by the amount of harm it does and from the intention we had in telling it.
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Death is when time is up. We have been given the opportunity of mercy while in this life. To reject God’s mercy with our final breath tells God exactly where we want to spend eternity. Christ does not force anyone to live with him. He respects our free will.
 
I understand that is the Church’s teaching. I just believe leaving this world may just be the beginning, and I believe God holds us in his mercy regardless of where our souls exist. Of course, it is not the Cathlolic belief. I have to provide that disclaimer.

I am always interested in hearing all of the different beliefs about living and dying. Living and dying is something we all have in common with eachother!
 
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Read that response from the Baltimore Catechism again. Ponder it. Now, how do you know how much harm a lie causes unless the person tells you? It’s best not to tell even little white lies because one lie leads to another and so on.

Would you rather have a reputation as a flatterer or one who tells the truth? I would rather my reputation be that of an honest person friends and family know they can reliably turn to than that of a flatterer who will say anything just to make someone feel good and then that person learn the truth later.

Yes, the truth can hurt. But the person who has asked you for it will know they can trust you to be honest and will trust your view more than that of the person who only tells them what they want to hear.
 
lilypadrees said:
Now, how do you know how much harm a lie causes unless the person tells you? It’s best not to tell even little white lies because one lie leads to another and so on.
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I agree about not telling white lies. I agree that we should tell the truth despite how painful it may be. But my feelings on the harm my lie causes is objective, and the gravity of my sin does not rely upon it. There is an objective difference between lying about a surprise birthday party, or that I like my mother’s meatloaf, than lying about the lethal ambush waiting for someone behind a door.

Better yet, I’d like to see an authoritative source that says all lies are mortal. I’ve never seen one, nor has any confessor I’ve ever confessed my lies to has said all lies are mortal.
 
True. We can speak in the abstract about what would be mortally sinful if all conditions were met, and what would happen to a person who died in unrepented mortal sin, but we cannot judge the state of any individual soul. Fortunately, the only being with any business doing so (God) can.

On the original topic, baptism alone will not protect someone from damnation if they fall into mortal sin and do not repent. Though it is of course fiction, and largely a political satire as well, Dante’s Inferno was written by a devout Catholic, and he assigned quite a number of Popes to Hell. The Pope is obviously a baptized Catholic.
 
I’m not sure any Catholic source says that all lies are mortal. But I was told once that even those seemingly harmless little white lies harm our relationship with God since it is Satan who encourages us to lie. It stayed with me. So I’m not going to take any chances even tho it is seemingly easier to tell that little white lie in order not to offend someone.
 
No I don’t. I have many issues with religion in general but truly thinking about hell was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. So I guess that would mean I’m a likely candidate for one of those baptized Catholics who can go to hell.
 
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