I'm a little surprise if I understand you correctly. Are you saying that hell is not a real place? I think the church fathers and many Protestants, as well as the scriptures, are very clear that hell is indeed a place. Where it is located is besides the point. We certainly do not know all the mysteries of the universe. It could be at the end of a Black Hole or right beneath our feet in another dimension. However, the teachings are clear that hell is a place just as heaven is a place.
I cannot help what John Paul might have thought. If he did not believe it to be a place then he should have spent a bit more time in the scriptures and a little less time in philosophy classes. I have read where some modern theologian believe that hell is simply being separated from God. Well, the scriptures give a little bit more detail about hell and it is far from being separated from God.
Taking off a Calvinist/Protestant hat and going out on one of my HarleyD personal limbs, I would say that God is in hell just as much as He is in heaven. Hell can't be a separation from God since God, by definition, is everywhere. Some say that God is in hell but people cannot see Him as oppose to Him being seen in heaven. This would be similar to the darkness of Egypt in the Old Testament where people grope but couldn't move while there was light in Goshen. God continued to exist in both places. This might be a bit closer to the truth except add the fire, brimstone, the worms eating your flesh; well you get the picture. But wherever, and whatever, hell is, God must surely exist there just as He exists in heaven but perhaps in a different way.
I know Catholics are trying to change the definition of hell to be more consistent with the Orthodox. This is just the same as changing the meaning of the atonement, original sin, and other things. Trouble is all those pesky creeds and early writings. All one can is hope nobody takes them seriously.
Of course not, everyone knows it's at the center of the earth surrounded by a big oxygen pocket next to a lode of brimstone.
It could be at the end of a Black Hole
No oxygen, no light. sorry.
or right beneath our feet in another dimension.
You get this from scripture, right?
I cannot help what John Paul might have thought.
Your original point was about what Roman Catholics believed. I gave Acquinas, a Pope and the Catechism.
I know Catholics are trying to change the definition of hell to be more consistent with the Orthodox.
Or perhaps we're one church and it's frustrating when attempts at "let's you and him fight" don't work.