How is an anathema not condemning someone to Hell?

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Hi everyone,

So I have heard, more often than once, that we do not know who is in Hell, except for Satan and his demons. I have also heard it so that the Church can never declare someone absolutely in Hell. The absolute least we can do, as a Church and as an individual human, is hope someone is in Heaven with the Lord - even a small amount of hope will suffice.

However, I came across this formula that was used in the (now defunct) act of anathematizing a heretic. Emphasis is mine.

“Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N-- himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, **we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, **that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment.”

(from here: newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm )

If this person repents, then of course the Church will receive him, because the Church has the power to bind and loose what is in Heaven. That’s fine.

However, what about an unrepentant heretic? How is the underlined portion above not absolutely condemning someone to Hell? It sounds like, if this anathematized person is unrepentant upon his death, he is definitively damned to Hell.

Thanks for your help.
 
The_Scott said:
Hi everyone,

So I have heard, more often than once, that we do not know who is in Hell, except for Satan and his demons. I have also heard it so that the Church can never declare someone absolutely in Hell. The absolute least we can do, as a Church and as an individual human, is hope someone is in Heaven with the Lord - even a small amount of hope will suffice.

However, I came across this formula that was used in the (now defunct) act of anathematizing a heretic. Emphasis is mine.

“Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N-- himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, **we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, **that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment.”

(from here: newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm )

If this person repents, then of course the Church will receive him, because the Church has the power to bind and loose what is in Heaven. That’s fine.

However, what about an unrepentant heretic? How is the underlined portion above not absolutely condemning someone to Hell? It sounds like, if this anathematized person is unrepentant upon his death, he is definitively damned to Hell.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Picture a man walking toward a cliff.

You say to him, “STOP! If you continue on walking toward the edge, you WILL FALL OVER THE CLIFF AND DIE.”

You are, therefore, stating to him the CONSEQUENCES of an action that he is about to take if he continues to walk. You are not making him walk; in fact, you are trying to save him.

The man continues to walk and falls over the cliff and dies.

Did you CONDEMN him to fall over the cliff and die by telling him that if he continued to walk and didn’t stop, he would fall? Of course not.

IOW: You warned him what would happen if he did something dangerous (walking toward a cliff and not stopping at the edge), and gave him the opportunity to stop and to save himself. He kept on going. You didn’t make him do that; he chose to do so.
 
Tantum_ergo said:
Picture a man walking toward a cliff.

You say to him, “STOP! If you continue on walking toward the edge, you WILL FALL OVER THE CLIFF AND DIE.”

You are, therefore, stating to him the CONSEQUENCES of an action that he is about to take if he continues to walk. You are not making him walk; in fact, you are trying to save him.

The man continues to walk and falls over the cliff and dies.

Did you CONDEMN him to fall over the cliff and die by telling him that if he continued to walk and didn’t stop, he would fall? Of course not.

IOW: You warned him what would happen if he did something dangerous (walking toward a cliff and not stopping at the edge), and gave him the opportunity to stop and to save himself. He kept on going. You didn’t make him do that; he chose to do so.
Click to expand...
That’s a great analogy. Thanks! However, the formula clearly says: “we condemn him…,” implying that we (to use your analogy) pushed him off the cliff. The verb is in the active voice, which means we (the Church) does the action of condemning. Perhaps this is simply a historical context of the word. I do think, though, that this phrase is simply meant to say, “we see that, if he continues in this belief, he will be condemned by God…”

Let me put your post in my own words, to make sure I understand: The anathema, therefore, is purely a legal act that brings the heretic’s consequences to light. It doesn’t, by its very act, actually condemn someone to Hell. If person x is not given the formula above, but still believes in a heresy, he is still able to go to Hell upon death. The anathema itself has no power to actually send the person’s soul to Hell.
 
The soul is being excluded from the normal means of grace (ie, the Sacraments) through the act of excommunication. The person cannot return to the Sacraments until he repents. How horrible a state to be in! yes, the goal is repentance, But if he dies in his obstinacy, the Church binds his sins on earth, and thus, they are bound in Heaven (Matthew 16). To bind sins is a duty of the Church should she judge a soul having rejected the faith in a serious way.

Also, excommunication is something verrrrrry serious. It is something that is not declared without a series of warnings first. The sinner knows what’s coming, yet they persist in their act.

Also remember, the Catholic Church is the surest means of attaining salvation, and to be in it, and then willingly reject a core dogma (heresy) despite warnings is a serious thing. IOW, by the time it gets to excommunication, the sinner is virtually obstinate in their sin, and this is a method of last resort.

In today’s day and age, we tend to emphasize that little sliver of extraordinary hope that may or may not exist (and to which God is most certainly not duty-bound to extend to the obstinate sinner). However, we do forget that this emphasis on the mere possibility of hope for the excommunicant’s salvation, should he die in this state, is faaaaaaarrrr outweighed by the peril the soul faces at his judgement. The Church is majoring on the major here: the soul is in serious peril, so try to get the soul back in the fold pronto.
 
The_Scott said:
If this person repents, then of course the Church will receive him, because the Church has the power to bind and loose what is in Heaven.
Click to expand...
That probably just didn’t come out right, but to clarify - the Church does not have the power to bind and loose what is in Heaven. Rather, the Church has the power to bind and loose what is on earth — when the Church does so, it will be reflected in heaven. But the Church has no authority to change Divine Law established by God (i.e., what is “in heaven”). For example, the Church has no authority to loose the faithful from obedience to the Moral Law of the Ten Commandments, or to say that the Sacraments are no longer effective, for these (among others) were established by God Himself.

Blessings,
Marduk
 
Ultimately there is only one judge, Jesus Christ. Anathemas means the Church hands one over to the power of satan, that is you are no longer protected by the Church through her prayers and whatever graces and privileges she can give to a person. Though it is not impossible that one can still make it to heaven, your chances is much, much smaller.
 
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