Why don't priests preach about Hell these days?

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Why don’t we hear about Hell these days? If ever there was a time when it was needed, it’s now.
 
The homilies depend on who is preaching them, right down to the country, part of the country you are in. A West Coast homily and a Southern or Midwest homily are very different things. I suspect the same happens with the likes of Cardinal Marx and Cardinal Mueller on Sunday morning in Germany. To refine the point, they have different priorities in terms of who is headed to hell and who is headed to heaven. The biggest danger being falling into a sort of ideological tribalism and rigidity (I think that word is passe now? I haven’t heard it in a while.) So, yes, we do need more hell right now - but just enough to get people back on the road to heaven. Package deal. My problem with the engaging where you are at approach is in practice it ends up closer to enabling and neglect of souls. Dishonesty. I see this as the prevailing trend so I criticize it, the same way I would criticize a Puritan who talked about nothing but hell all day long. Probably just where I live.
 
I think it is the result of individual interpretation of the Gospel. Preaching the Jesus of ‘me’. For instance you hear about Jesus walking with sinners but not the part where He warned against sin. You hear about Jesus not condemning but not the part where He said go and sin no more. We are called to be Christ like yet it seems not the parts where Jesus warns against sin, satan and hell lol.
 
I’ve yet to meet a priest who does not preach about hell when it is appropriate (preaching on Last Things, homilies that relate to Gospel passages about the Last Things).
 
Well thank you all for your replies. Maybe its just a problem here in the UK I’ve been a Catholic over twenty years now and have never heard a sermon on Hell or judgement. I’m always surprised that priests aren’t more worried about it since they are held so accountable.
 
No, it is a problem in the US, no worries. I went to Catholic Masses in the US for over 15 years. No one ever said a word about going to hell. Not once. Mind you, those who judge (and/or are not Democrat) are usually on the hot seat, right? Fire and brimstone - I did get plenty of that.
 
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Jesus preached about hell many times when he was preaching to those who were deep in mortal sin. He said it to warn them.
 
Because if we did it would be a sure way to get people away from the Church. I feel like we are all actually quite aware that we could go to Hell. Your average Sunday church goer probably goes to Confession with some frequency and knows what mortal sin is and that it is grave. I don’t think more preaching on Hell is what the average Sunday-church goer needs. That being said I live in a small village in South-East England so my picture of reality could be really distorted.

Real talk though, going to Mass and hearing a homily and realizing that it isn’t all fire and brimstone is one of the things that opened me up to the Catholic church. Had I heard fire and brimstone maybe I wouldn’t be getting received into the church tomorrow.
 
Not talking about fire and brimstone. Just preach the whole Gospel. Again Jesus spoke much about sin, satan and hell. The average church goer needs to hear all of what Jesus has to say.
 
Same here. I like it when the priest says that sin is the beginning of hell, because we decide for ourselves what is good disregarding God and that path will lead to the total absence of God.
 
We don’t get much of it. Our allude to it from time to time. We had one priest that would often talk about preparing for the afterlife. We used to get a chewing out periodically from one Priest that was there for years, usually about going to the mall instead of going to Mass. Everyone loved it, it meant he really cared about us.
I really miss that.
 
Of course some preach about hell. But I think it is obvious that fewer do now than in the past when hell was a central preoccupation of preaching. Preaching is in large part a form of social marketing: by communication, behaviour is changed in large groups. Social marketers will tell us that any social marketing message has to be believable and credible to the audience (irrespective of whether it is true). The fact is that the idea of hell developed in societies in which rulers had absolute power and were vicious in their use of punishment. It seems credible that the most powerful being in the world would be similar to those who rejected his rule. He had infinite power, therefore his punishments would be infinite. The rise of democracies and their constant improvement in tolerance and freedom shows people a different model. There is no longer acceptances that an all powerful ruler would act in such a way. The ruler would, like his subjects, be bound by the law and by the virtues of tolerance, respect, moderation and forgiveness even of those who persist in their rejection of his norms. The idea of hell is therefore rejected. Our cultures have moved past such beliefs. Priests can attract a small congregation of those willing to continue to accept such beliefs, but they cannot mass-market this idea. The potential market is shrinking. The priest will lose credibility by continuing to push it. So they preach on hell less and less. A group of bishops who decide to do an SSPX on the other end of the spectrum and openly reject the traditional concept of hell will find people flocking to them.
 
Very little of it in my local,and I think it was some years ago confession was mentioned.Wake up calls are needed because complacency drifts in.
I like to hear the truth.
 
I walk around - with the healthy fear of it - daily.
I believe in Jesus - and I also believe in Hell -
I’ve done my research -
Trust me, I wish I didn’t have this about me !

I once heard someone describe, guarding the ark of the covenant,
as ‘beholding a living thing of terror’ -
You do have to wonder - at such holiness !
 
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