Should we pray for those in hell?

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SHJIHM

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Does the Catholic Church have a liturgy practice similiar to that of the Easteron Orthodox churches that are intended to lessen the torment of those in hell?

I am refering to St. Basil’s prayer used in the Orthodox churches. So long as we make the distinction between prayer intended to lessen the torment of those in hell versus prayer intended to release those same souls from eternal torment, I see no difference between the Orthodox and Catholic beliefs in this matter. Or am I wrong I this matter?
 
Without seeing the prayer of St. Basil to which you refer, I cannot comment on what his intention may have been in that prayer. What I can say is that prayers do not benefit souls in hell because those souls have definitively chosen against God and so cannot be helped (either by release from hell or mitigation of suffering) by God or his saints.
 
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