What Does the Church Actually Teach about Hell?

A pedagogy focused on avoiding Hell is not of God

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There is a real problem in the Church when priests and others focus their faithful parishioners on avoiding Hell as the reason for our faith. They will teach that we must make avoiding sin our priority or we risk eternal damnation. This is not what the Church actually teaches. Instead, the mission is to live synderesis—do good and avoid evil. Jesus said that his brothers and sisters are those who do the will of God. If you focus on doing good, doing God’s will, you will avoid doing evil by default.

There are even some Catholic influencers who preach the philosophy of Massa Damnata which is the vast majority of souls go to Hell. I do not teach this and I warn against it.

One member of the Catholic discord for the podcast Uncharted Catholic Man explains how a priest told him when he was seven years old that his parents and he were going to Hell because they did not go to Church. He was seven, he could not go unless his parents took him to Church. However, this admonition by a priest has traumatized him to this day.

It is just plain wrong that Catholic leaders terrorize their faithful that the prime reason for living our faith is to avoid Hell. It is a terrible injustice.

Magisterial teaching on Hell

First, does Hell exist? Yes, as Catholics this is part of the teaching of the Church. However, before we do any further teaching, we need to understand what Hell actually is and understand who actually goes there.

Pope John Paul II gave a definitive teaching on Hell during his general audience on July 28th 1999. It is a short discourse but comprehensive. The teaching of Hell is simple.

Let’s take a look at what the Church says about Hell.

God initiates salvation not damnation

One of the greatest fears is that God will send people to Hell. Their name is not found in the Book of Life and they will be judged wanting. Think of this as the child who angers a parent and gets written out of the will. The initiation and decision is the parent’s and the child cannot change this. This goes against the Church’s teaching. God does not initiate the condemnation to Hell like a parent will exclude a child from an inheritance. One suffers damnation by their own self-initiation. Pope Saint John Paul II explains Hell as: [T]he state of those who definitively reject the Father’s mercy, even at the last moment of their life. (§ 1)

So Hell, like Heaven, is not a place but a state of being. It is the fruit of an obstinate choice to separate oneself from God caused by one’s definitive decision to the end of their life.

The sainted pontiff further explains that the Old and New Testaments give graphic images of Hell but they are symbolic.

By using images, the New Testament presents the place destined for evildoers as a fiery furnace, where people will “weep and gnash their teeth” (Mt 13:42; cf. 25:30, 41), or like Gehenna with its “unquenchable fire” (Mk 9:43). All this is narrated in the parable of the rich man, which explains that hell is a place of eternal suffering, with no possibility of return, nor of the alleviation of pain (cf. Lk 16:19-31).

The Book of Revelation also figuratively portrays in a “pool of fire” those who exclude themselves from the book of life, thus meeting with a “second death” (Rv 20:13f.). Whoever continues to be closed to the Gospel is therefore preparing for “eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thes 1:9). (§ 2)

Notice the representations are figurative and symbolic of an eternal destruction and exclusion from the Lord. They are not literal presentations.

Hell is a state of being where one chooses to cut him/herself off from God. The person obstinately refuses the mercy of God and any contact or desire for Him.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah:

15 Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD their counsel,

whose deeds are in the dark,

and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

16 You turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;

that the thing made should say of its maker,

“He did not make me”;

or the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”? (Isaiah 29:15-16)

Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain). (1994). The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition (Is 29:15–16). National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.

The traditional aspect of Hell seen for much of the Twentieth Century and portrayed in venues like the Baltimore Catechism is that regardless of one’s relationship with God certain sins cause one to suffer damnation by default. That is not what the Church actually teaches. Instead, she explains that God always sends his grace to us to call us to repentance and to His mercy. The souls who go to Hell reject this gracious outpouring to the end. They would put up a spiritual version of a lead wall against the gamma-like rays of God’s grace. Their rejection is reflected in their actions.

The person who is bound for Hell, by their own choice, will act in a way that reflects no desire in any way for enjoying a relationship with God, experiencing his mercy or love.

Hell is the fruit of many selfish actions

I worked for a man who exemplified this and I learned, later, many despised him. Now, is he bound for Hell? I don’t know. He is still alive. When I knew him, he was nasty and mean to anyone but his drinking buddies. He did not care whom he hurt. If he received a phone call, you had to be careful what you said because you had no idea if the caller was his wife or his mistress. He took time off from work daily to go with his employee drinking buddies for the rest of the day; so much of the organization’s work did not get done. He was a boss, so he would scream at the other employees the next morning for being behind in their work despite being the cause of the problem.

Here is someone who had no desire to have any connection to God or even the devil—just himself. Going by that behavior, would you say he was bound for Hell? Of course.

That is a far cry from the person who oversleeps some Sunday morning and chooses not to go to Mass that day. Is that serious sin? Yes, because it opens one to the possibility of walking away from God altogether. Will someone end up in Hell because they missed Mass some Sunday after oversleeping? No, even by taking every jot and tittle of Magisterial teaching, this person did not reject a relationship with God. He or she just overslept and chose at that point it was not practical to go to Church.

Of course, this practice can become habitual which can then lead one away from God. That one act does not fulfill the criteria by any stretch of the imagination. It would be a serious warning, if it happened the following weekend as well.

The practice of teaching that we are bound for Hell and must work hard to avoid it without any reference to the salvation Jesus won for us on the Cross, is not only wrong, but the pope also proscribes it in his support of the teaching itself.

The thought of hell — and even less the improper use of biblical images — must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry “Abba, Father!” (Rm 8:15; Gal 4:6).

This prospect, rich in hope, prevails in Christian proclamation. It is effectively reflected in the liturgical tradition of the Church, as the words of the Roman Canon attest: “Father, accept this offering from your whole family ... save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen”. (§ 4)

Those who fill innocent Catholics with the fear of Hell leading them to leave the Church or focus away from Christ truly do a great disservice to the Church and must be avoided at all costs. In fact, I believe God will hold them accountable for their actions on judgement day.

The commandment is to love God and neighbor, not to avoid Hell. If you seek to live God’s will, you will not go to Hell. If you seek to avoid Hell first, you may do so without ever obeying God’s will and that is not the mission of the faithful Catholic.

Fr. Robert J Carr is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA

The parish podcast is at CatholicAudioMedia.com

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The newest edition of Fr Robert J Carr's latest book is now available. Christ in Our Humanity. You can find it here.