My admittedly limited knowledge of Catholic theology leads me to understand that somebody can be absolved of all sins if they are baptized and/or make a full confession to a Priest on their deathbed. Is this true? What if there were a Catholic priest handy in the bunker and, with his dying breaths, Hitler confessed his sins, expressed remorse, and received the communion of holy baptism? Would he go straight to heaven according to Catholic theology? Or are there some sins that could not be absolved, no matter how sincere the person was as he felt his life slipping away?
I’m not sure exacly what Catholics believe, but I know that if he confessed his sins to God, asked for forgiveness, and excepted Jesus into his life, he would be forgiven.
My understanding of Catholic doctrine is that Jesus, being God and all powerful and the only perfect human that ever lived and therefore the only one worthy to judge any humans, can forgive any sin regardless of how bad it looks to us mere humans.
If Hitler had ACTUALLY been remorseful and sorry for all he had done, God would have forgiven him. God is infinitely merciful.
Of course, Hitler would have had to be a different person than he was to actually be remoreseful. It’s sort of like asking “if an elephant was a sparrow, could it fly?”
I agree with RickJay. God does not turn away anyone who sincerely repents and asks for forgiveness.
The thing to remember is that you can’t fool God. If Hitler makes this deathbed confession in the attempt to get into Heaven through a loophole and isn’t truly contrite…what, you think God won’t know?
Well, he wouldn’t have been baptized, he would have gotten last rights, but yeah.
In fact, this very hypothetical sitch was something we were told about in CCD–that God would forgive even Hitler if he sincerely repented.
Now, this was accompanied by a reminder that he’d still be punished (imagine the stint he’d have to serve in Purgatory) and that there was no evidence the real Hitler had done this and he was frying in hell. But theoretically, yep. If God’s mercy is infinite, it has to extend to the worst of the worst.
JerseyDiamond,
So what about the six million Jews who died in the holocaust. Are they in Hell right now because they didn’t accept Jesus? What kind of God would forgive Hitler and punish his victims?
I think - personally - that it’s bordering on blasphemous for people to attempt to decide that which is God’s decision alone – the forgiveness of a soul and its destination in the afterlife.
But as far as Catholic theology, as opposed to Bricker theology, goes:
There is no particular reason to believe that the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust are in Hell.
The reception of the Sacrament of Penance, combined with a true and sincere remorse and contrition, forgives sins, but does not remit the temporal punishment due for those sins. Cathechism 1472:
The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, sometimes called Last Rites or Extreme Unction, serves the same purpose of forgiveness of sins only if the person was too sick to receive this grace through the Sacrament of Penance (see Cathechism § 1532).
Well, since the OP asked about CATHOLIC beliefs, the answer is no, they are not in hell because they were Jews. It is not presently the position of the Catholic church that membership in the Church is necessary for salvation.
There are Christian sects that do believe all those Jews are in hell, but it’s against current Catholic dogma.
God sets rules and enforces them. You can choose salvation or you can decline.
Our tiny brains are not able to comprehend the mind of God. I don’t know why you try.
All we need to know is that God is just and fair.
Trying to put your moral beliefs on God’s is not gonna work.
It sucks, and I wish some things were different to, but like I said, He has rules. All we have to do is follow them.
People don’t go to hell because they are this or that, people go to hell because they do not accept Jesus, right?
I know lots of Jews who are Christians.
Just out of curiosity, with Catholosism, do you have to be a Christian to be saved?
Catholics believe that there are many people that would have accepted baptism, and Christ Jesus, had they had a meaningful opportunity to do so, and predict that, through God’s mercy, they are saved.
Indeed, what of all the people that lived prior to Christ? What of Enoch, who walked with God? Are we to assume they they are not destined for eternal life and salvation?
With regard to Jews going to hell for not accepting Christ, I remember reading not too long ago a statement from the Vatican that basically said that the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades were unnecessary, since the salvation of Jews was dependent on the original covenant they made with God (in Old Testament times) and not their acceptance of Christ. Nice of the Catholic Church to realize this after a couple of thousand years. Better late than never, eh?
As for Hitler gaining deathbed atonement, I kind of like the response that this is a situation that would never really arise, since somebody THAT evil wouldn’t be capable of sincere remorse at the last moment. But it still leaves open the question of what would have happened had he, say, escaped to South America and then, years later, regretted his actions and became baptized. It’s still a hypothetical situation, but perhaps more likely (think of all the Death Row criminals who “discover god” while in jail).
sorry for the spelling errors. I don’t have hours and hours to go over spelling and posts. What a suprise coming from SD. :rolleyes:
anyway…
Beagledave, there are Jewish people who are Christians. I use to go to one of their churches.
also,
RickJay said: *Well, since the OP asked about CATHOLIC beliefs, the answer is no, they are not in hell because they were Jews. It is not presently the position of the Catholic church that membership in the Church is necessary for salvation.
There are Christian sects that do believe all those Jews are in hell, but it’s against current Catholic dogma.*
bolding mine:
so that makes me thing that you do not have to be a Christian, according to the Catholic belief, to be saved.
I hope that makes more sense. I was just trying to understand that particular point with the Catholic church.
Perhaps what you are confusing is the fact that all Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. There are Christians who belong to protestant denominations. Thus, it would lead me to believe that Catholics are saying that even protestants, who are not members of the CATHOLIC church, are still eligible for heaven.