WPI contributor Paul Fahey and SmartCatholics founder Dominic DeSouza have a new episode of “Pope Francis Generation” out this week in which they talk about hell. They discuss Church teaching, debates surrounding the theory of universalism, and how a Catholic should approach the topic.
From the show notes:
Episode eleven of the Pope Francis Generation podcast is now out on YouTube and in podcast feeds!
The topic of hell is an interesting one for me personally. One one hand, I find the arguments for universalism compelling. One the other, I take the Church’s doctrine seriously. This creates in interior tension for me, one that has at times been both frustrating, but also captivating. It’s in the tension that the Lord can bring about creative new ways to see things.
I hope you enjoy our discussion.
This week, Dominic and Paul take a look at the Church’s teaching about hell. They navigate questions like: Are all people saved? Should we hope that everyone is saved? Can someone really commit an action worthy of an eternal punishment? How can we reconcile eternal torment with a loving God?
“With death, our life-choice becomes definitive—our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in certain figures of our own history. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell” (Pope Benedict, Spe Salvi 45).
Paid subscribers get to watch each episode before everyone else, join private Q&As, and you’ll be able to pitch ideas for the topic of our final show this season!
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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