Church does not define any individual as in hell--Need Citations!

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Smeej

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Hey everybody,

Sorry to do this on such short notice. I teach an apologetics class and one of my students doesn’t believe me that the Church does not define any particular individual as being in hell, even Judas.

There are tons of QuickQuestions answers, but none with citations! I need to be able to cite documents, CCC, and/or Scripture. Help in the next half hour? Longer would be okay too, but he’ll be at a meeting and probably ask me about it in half an hour.

Thanks!
Lindsay
 
Smeej said:
Hey everybody,

Sorry to do this on such short notice. I teach an apologetics class and one of my students doesn’t believe me that the Church does not define any particular individual as being in hell, even Judas.

There are tons of QuickQuestions answers, but none with citations! I need to be able to cite documents, CCC, and/or Scripture. Help in the next half hour? Longer would be okay too, but he’ll be at a meeting and probably ask me about it in half an hour.

Thanks!
Lindsay
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The quickest answer would be to ask the student to show you where the Church states any particular individual is in hell. The Church cannot know…only God can because that would be known only after a person dies.
 
You can also point to the canonization process and further point out that the Church does not have an “anti-canonization” process where it gathers evidence and makes a proclamation that someone is in hell.
 
By the late Avery Cardinal Dulles:

"The search for numbers in the demography of hell is futile. God in His wisdom has seen fit not to disclose any statistics. Several sayings of Jesus in the Gospels give the impression that the majority are lost. Paul, without denying the likelihood that some sinners will die without sufficient repentance, teaches that the grace of Christ is more powerful than sin: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). Passages such as these permit us to hope that very many, if not all, will be saved.

All told, it is good that God has left us without exact information. If we knew that virtually everybody would be damned, we would be tempted to despair. If we knew that all, or nearly all, are saved, we might become presumptuous. If we knew that some fixed percent, say fifty, would be saved, we would be caught in an unholy rivalry. We would rejoice in every sign that others were among the lost, since our own chances of election would thereby be increased. Such a competitive spirit would hardly be compatible with the gospel."

firstthings.com/article/2008/08/the-population-of-hell-23

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “In hope, the Church prays for ‘all men to be saved’ (1 Timothy 2:4)” (CCC §1821). At another point the Catechism declares: “The Church prays that no one should be lost” (CCC §1058)

Now some may point to the writings of the Saints on Hell, but, as far as I know, the Church has never officially declared so-and-so to be in Hell, leaving it rightfully in God’s Hands. We are rightfully to fear the possibility of Hell and strive for Heaven. I think I am not wrong on this but am learning as well.

God Bless.🙂
 
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