Thank you! Someone else correctly commented that this article by Richard Owen was poorly written by someone who basically doesn't know what he is talking about. Heaven and Hell are the states (conditions) of our souls after death. The unrepentant soul eventually will exist in hell (separation from God, spiritual torment); the repentant soul will eventually exist in heaven (spiritual bliss, joy). The Orthodox and Catholics offer commemorative services for the repentant souls as both particular Churches have always recognized an intermediate state between the particular and final judgments, although the exact terminology of that state has not been agreed on.
He had wanted to reinforce the new Catholic catechism, which holds that hell is a "state of eternal separation from God", to be understood "symbolically rather than physically".
The only "new Catholic catechism" I know of is close to 15 years old. And it never says hell is to be understood "symbolically rather than physically"; in fact, it doesn't use the word "symbolic" or "symbolically" in reference to hell at all.
So what's he talking about?
It's really amazing how much the MSM can muddle the Vatican, and indeed almost anything else they report on.