PREPOSTEROUS!!!!!!!!
He did not say that. He said they are a state of being; NOT of this world, but the next. You appear to think that Eternity is not real. Quite the contrary: Eternity is far more real than this life.
"Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy”."
What could possibly be more horrible than eternal separation from God? Nothing, of course ...
This is a big argument about what is "real," I think.