Our Sunday Vistor: "No one ever goes to Hell who has been truly loved by another"

Crux News ^ | April 24, 2004

[Land of the Irish]

Msgr. M. Francis Mannion is still at it, giving bum answers to good questions. In his regular column in Our Sunday Visitor (Nov. 16, 2003), he is asked: "My 25-year-old son was recently killed in a motorcycle accident. He was a very good man and a good son, and he had a lot of integrity. However, he was an agnostic…. Now, I worry about his salvation. I want to believe he is with God or at least in purgatory…. Should I worry that he might be in hell?"

Mannion answers: "If we love someone and hope for their [sic] salvation, God sees their merits and virtues far more deeply and perceptively than we do…. It is a holy and noble thought that no one ever goes to hell who has been truly loved by another human being in this life. What good we see in the lives of those we love, God sees all the more."

First, if God sees more good in those we love than we do, think of how much more bad God sees in them. Most people like to advertise their goodness, not their badness, but people cannot hide their badness from God.

Second, to "hope" for someone’s salvation has no bearing on whether he is actually saved.

Third, it is not "a holy and noble thought that no one ever goes to hell who has been truly loved by another…." Such a "thought" has nothing to do with authentic holiness. And if it’s noble, at best it’s a noble lie. We defy Mannion to find anything in Scripture or magisterial Church teaching that would affirm that "no one ever goes to hell who has been truly loved by another."

Mannion’s answer was most amusing in light of the previous week’s Visitor (Nov. 9), which inaugurated a sweeping re-design of the Visitor and included a feature called "Catholic Journalists You Know and Trust." That feature highlighted the Visitor’s regular writers, giving bits of their biography, and often their philosophy and their take on the Church. Greg Erlandson, the Publisher of the Visitor, gave this two-sentence quote on his understanding of what the Visitor stands for: "Catholics have a right to know what the Church teaches and why. Too often, personal agendas obscure the clear presentation of these truths." If Erlandson really believes that, we don’t know why he allows Mannion to write for the Visitor, for Mannion often gives us his strange "personal agenda," not what "the Church teaches."

Mannion is notorious for inventing new doctrines. In his Visitor column (July 16, 2000), he said: "To say that Judas’ sin could not be forgiven is to say that the power of Satan is greater than that of Jesus, that Jesus’ resurrection had limited power to redeem and was not able to grasp the soul of Judas. In truth, Jesus’ death and resurrection overpower the worst evil of which human beings are capable." What Mannion is saying is that ultimately man has no free will (Jesus "overpowers" our evil choices), and that everyone is guaranteed salvation, no repentance needed — all of which is clearly contrary to Catholic teaching. If Judas was saved — which we seriously doubt — he repented of his own free will; whether he was saved or damned has nothing to do with the preposterous notion that "the power of Satan is greater than that of Jesus."

Also in his Visitor column (April 14, 2002), Mannion said that "it is reasonable" to "speculate" that Hitler and Stalin are in Heaven because "Christians are called to solidarity with all their fellow human beings." Doesn’t Mannion know that "Christian solidarity" has nothing to do with how Jesus Christ judges Hitler and Stalin? Mannion also said that "Hitler and Stalin could only be in heaven if they were embraced there by their earthly victims." Where did Mannion get the ridiculous notion that mortal men decide Hitler and Stalin’s eternal destiny rather than Jesus Christ? To go to Heaven, Hitler and Stalin had to repent before death; the embraces of mere men are of no avail.

It’s obvious that Mannion has major problems with the Church’s doctrine of Hell — and feels free to promote his doubts in the pages of the Visitor. But Mannion’s strange concoctions are, as St. Paul put it, "fables" (see 2 Tim. 4:3-4).

Now, we can understand why Mannion would want to offer words of comfort to that mother whose 25-year-old son was killed in a motorcycle accident. But assuring her that because she loved him and because she thinks he was good that therefore he is in no danger of going to Hell is some other gospel, not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, the vast majority of mothers love their children and think they’re essentially good, but mothers don’t decide who goes to Heaven.

Rather, the mother of the son killed in the motorcycle accident should have been urged by Mannion to pray persistently that her son somehow did whatever it takes to be saved and/or that God will have mercy on her son (because God foresees all, He hears such prayers before the son’s actual death). The mother — who is a Catholic and surely raised her son to be a believer, but who died an agnostic without faith in Jesus — is right to worry that her son might be in Hell. By telling her not to worry, Mannion is causing the mother to deprive her son of needed prayers. And by broadcasting his weird opinions in the Visitor, Mannion is telling moms everywhere that it doesn’t matter if their children apostatize or commit unrepented mortal sins, that just so long as the mom loves her children and the mom (not Jesus) thinks they were "good," they go to Heaven.

Mannion’s column is called "Pastoral Answers." It’s precisely these kinds of bogus "answers" that cause real Catholics to be on guard whenever they hear the word "pastoral."

Cruxnews.com Note: Each week we will be bringing you a "New Oxford Note" straight from the venerable New Oxford Review. This week's originally appeared in the March 2004 issue.

NOR Notes archvive: www.cruxnews.com/NORNotes On the web: www.newoxfordreview.com Sign up to receive the Cruxnews.com weekly updates by email. signup

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Goodbye, Good Men How Liberals Brought Corruption Into the Catholic Church (2002)

Ugly As Sin Why They Changed Our Sacred Places to Worship Spaces--And How we Can Change Them Back (2001)

The Renovation Manipulation The Church Counter-Renovation Handbook

[johnb2004]

"There is no "easy" way around the answer. The crux of this womans question is simply this: is my son in hell? The answer is yes"

Not true. You are as incorrect as the priest who said he was saved. Only God knows where his soul is.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***The Lord Casts No One Into Hell***

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew 10:28

[broadsword]

Not bad, but you left out the parts where Jesus says, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no life in you" and "My flesh is real food and my flesh is real drink". Got to do what He says, because to have no life in you is to be dead. The people of the time knew exactly what he was saying in their own language, and all his disciples left him, but the twelve apostles. those who left said, "This is madness! How can he give us His body to eat and His blood to drink?" But they didn't understand the miracle of the Holy Eucharist He was about to institute to feed our spiritual needs.

No life in you without it. Very serious. Life or death.

[broadsword]

The article was posted because this Monsignor Mannion, who is supposed to be a defender of the faith is propagating the wishy-washy, AmChurch idea of "If you're a nice person, you go to Heaven...

And Mr. Anything-Goes-Amchurch takes it a step further to preach the heresy that EVERYBODY GOES TO HEAVEN! Yahoooooo! It's party time, boys! Bring on those hot chicks (and little boys for SOME). We can live lives of sensual, self-centered depravity here and still get to that big party in the sky! Wowzers!

Of course it flies in the face of everything Jesus taught, but why let that get in the way of the proud march of Amchurch modernism?

[broadsword]

Is this how Novus Ordo adherents rally to their cause? By giving people false hope?

Who knows how God might react to a person who lives a dissolute life because he has been mislead to do that by heretical Catholic clergy? It is a much easier question, perhaps, to ponder how God might react to those clergy who know better, and yet willfully lead the sheep astray.

[broadsword]

I don't teach youngsters; I teach adults.

Thank you. I can now shudder 3% less at the thought of you teaching your Amchurch caThoLic fAitH.

[broadsword]

They do not state there is anyone in hell.

What about when Jesus tells of Lazarus in Heaven and the rich man in hell? That was clearly not a parable. What about when He says about Judas, "It would have been better for this man had he never been born." Who would say that about a man who made it to heaven. I am telling you, deaCON, your wacked-out modernist preaching is going to lead people to the very place you deny. And I say LEAD. Your heresy flies in the face of the entire Bible, the Gospel message, the preaching of Jesus and the entire history of the Church.

Take the plunge, sinkspur, and formalize your protestantism. The Catholic Church will then be just a bit safer for the lambs of God.

[broadsword]

Perhaps some have gone to hell because those in the Church have not done their jobs and preach a false Gospel? Hell is real. Lying about the truth may help people send themselves there.

Exactly! Well put, my friend.

[HairOfTheDog]

Is this how Novus Ordo adherents rally to their cause? By giving people false hope?

All faith is based in hope. Your 'truth' can't be proven on this earth any more than his can. I for one am not going to tell someone who has lost their beloved son that he is right now being tortured for eternity, because we simply do not know that.

[RnMomof7]

I think Hitler's mom loved him... terrible thought huh?

[sinkspur]

That was clearly not a parable.

It clearly is a parable. Go back and read it, in context.

You don't even know your Scripture.

I'm sorry you can't prove your point, but better men than you have tried.

And, BTW, Pope John Paul II says we should all pray that there are no souls in hell.

Is he a heretic, too?

[broadsword]

It clearly is a parable.

Nope. It is not told in the form of a parable. Parables do not name names like that. And, BTW, Pope John Paul II says we should all pray that there are no souls in hell. Is he a heretic, too?

Nope. There is a bit difference between his holy prayer and your unholy heresy. Why don't you formalize your protestantism? Is it because you like to stay where you can do the most damage?

[sinkspur]

It is not told in the form of a parable. Parables do not name names like that.

That's your scholarship? LOL!!

The story of Lazarus is a parable.

The rest of your post is nonsense.

[sinkspur]

I for one am not going to tell someone who has lost their beloved son that he is right now being tortured for eternity, because we simply do not know that.

Many around here would.

They would also tell the mother of a deceased unbaptized infant that that infant will never see God.

[broadsword]

The rest of your post is nonsense.

So you CAN'T respond to it, eh? Your preaching heresy is something you will have to answer for in the end. But since you are dead certain you will go to heaven, I suppose you shouldn't worry about it. (snicker) In fact, I hope you don't. (giggle) Don't worry about salvation, sinkspur. (chortle) You have it made. (chuckle) Your mommy loves you and that's your ticket straight to heaven. (laugh) To hell with the Bible, the Gospels, the redundant statements of Jesus to the contrary, and 2,000 years of Catholic faith. (snicker) To hell with the sin of presumption. (nudge, nudge) I am sure YOU will make it to heaven, whatever that God fellow might think. (snicker, wink, wink) Just keep on your sure path of presumption, sinkspur. (stifled laugh) You, alone, got it all figured out, sinkspur! (hee hee) Just keep on doing what you're doing, man. (LOL!)

If not, you can always ask Lazarus to wet his finger for you.

[sinkspur]

Grow up.

[broadsword]

Become Catholic.

[HairOfTheDog]

Many around here would.

I know. I could be wrong, but I don't think God's Truth is found in the obnoxiously arrogant. If it feels foul, it probably is foul.

[broadsword]

Many around here would.

Expound on your group slander, sinkspur. Since you are speaking for others to the detriment of their characters, WHO SPECIFICALLY would tell the woman her son IS rotting in hell? It would not be a Catholic thing to judge the final destination of a man's soul, unless there are numerous miracles associated with the person, you know... or you should anyway.

So give us some names, and then let's see what they have to say about that.

[sinkspur]

No. They knew who they are.