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To: Mrs. Don-o

I have never interpreted the Fatima Prayer as referring to those most grievous (and serial) sinners who wantonly and irrevocably chose to implement the devil’s most grievous intentions while on earth...true agents of Satan...no more capable of genuine repentance than is Lucifer himself. To say that they are — other than solely out of a fear of eternal punishment — sounds like bleeding-heart wishful thinking to me. Gosnell and others on your list essentially passed through the one-way gateway to hell while still living and breathing on this earth.


24 posted on 06/13/2013 6:27:35 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
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To: steve86

The problem with your line of thinking is that it places the burden of salvation on the sinner, not on God. Gosnell or whoever doesn’t have to be capable of repentance on their own, because, if it happens, it will happen through the power of God, not through their own efforts. Remember, sometimes God chooses to step in and change the hearts of even the most despicable men, not because they deserve it, but because it demonstrates the glory, mercy, and sovereignty of God.


34 posted on 06/14/2013 7:21:18 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: steve86
You believe that some cannot repent in the end, and thus cannot receive God's mercy even in the final moments of their earthly lives. This is an error. This error will produce, in anyone who believes it, a defect in mercy, since such a one would refuse to pray for Hitler or Tamerlan Tsarnaev or Kermit Gosnell, and thus fail in the universal duty to "pray for the living and the dead."

"In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved." (Catechism link)

and

The Church prays that no one should be lost:...If it is true that no one can save himself, it is also true that God "desires all men to be saved" (1 Tim 2:4), and that for him "all things are possible" (Mt 19:26) (Catechism link)

This is not Universalism; it does not require, or even hint, that Hell might be empty or have no inhabitants except Satan and his bodiless hordes of demons.

Hell is a hot possibility for anyone, and a terrifying one.

That is why we pray without ceasing. You for me, me for you, all of us for the most despicable sinners --- save them, Lord, we pray.

"Especially those in most need of Thy mercy."

36 posted on 06/14/2013 9:13:54 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("The Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." - 1 Timothy 3:15)
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