One thing was common among many like Don Bosco, there were mandated to read Dante’s Divine Comedy and much of what they believe about hell and what we believe today came from Dante’s Inferno.
Of course it was a work of fiction, but nonetheless, the visionaries had it committed to memory by the time they had their first vision.
So, whether or not what they saw was factual or not, is left up to those who chose to believe.
Hell is real, I have no doubt about it. But it’s perplexing to me that visions of hell are spoken more about by Catholics than about visions of heaven.
It seems to be a message of hopelessness of which many believers pattern their lives after.
Jim