Given it’s St Bernard’s feast day, might want to consider that St Vincent apparently has a different take:
‘Saint Vincent Ferrer relates that an archdeacon in Lyons gave up his charge and retreated into a desert place to do penance, and that he died the same day and hour as Saint Bernard. After his death, he appeared to his bishop and said to him, “Know, Monsignor, that at the very hour I passed away, thirty-three thousand people also died. Out of this number, Bernard and myself went up to heaven without delay, three went to purgatory, and all the others fell into Hell.’
I do not see the two, St Vincent and Msgr. Charles Pope take, different. The key is the understanding of “invincible ignorance”, this is far different than free will rejection. God will knows the hearts, minds and intents of all thus there is no way to lie to God and His Judgment will be both perfect and final.
“Their ignorance of full Catholic teaching must be what is called “invincible ignorance,” meaning a lack of knowledge that they could not reasonably overcome. Thus, if one is lazy or makes excuses when seeking the truth, God will take it into account. “
Note the other difference is St Vincent quantified it in a way to express the vast amount of fallen souls where Msgr. Charles Pope left this out of the subject.
Pray for those Lost souls!
Related:
Matthew 7:21-29(rsv)
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’
“Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock;
and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand;
and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.”
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
God Bless