Dying In A State Of Mortal Sin.

When I was a kid in RC school we used to joke that you could go to hell for just eating a candy bar. But actually, that is true. Breaking your Lenten promise is a mortal sin. If you die in a state of mortal sin, you do go to hell. And that could just be eating a candy bar.

Pope Francis still agrees that hell is eternal. He thinks it may not be as bad as people think, though.

 

I remember a 14 year old girl. She'd been riding in the back of her parent's pickup on the Blue Ridge Parkway when it was involved in a head on collision; she was catapulted at high speed far downrange onto the pavement. She was badly broken up; multiple long bone fractures, skull fracture, probable internal and spinal injuries.Beneath her on the gurney was my defibrillator and airway kit. I was her "Guardian Angel"; I was there to try and resuscitate her if she died as I shepherded her back and forth for multiple X-rays, MRI's, etc. prepping for surgery. She briefly regained consciousness in Radiology to ask after her parents. I told her I was here to take care of her, and others were tending to her parents. I didn't mention that they were mortuary staff.
Finally on our way to the OR, we were stopped by a priest to administer last rites. My entire being rebelled on a cellular level at the notion that that broken child was in any way separated from the love of God at that moment or needed to be shriven in any way by the intercession of some intermediary gate-keeper. I literally felt like screaming. Fourty-odd years later, and I still vividly remember her
I've never looked at Catholicism the same since.

 

Hell has the best candy bars.