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One of the key events of Holy Week is the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot—something many Christians are convinced caused Judas to go to hell. I used to be one of them.
However, several times recently, Church officials have stated that—even though hell is a real possibility humans can choose—the Church does not teach that any particular person is in hell.
For example, in his 1994 interview book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II discussed who will go to hell and wrote:
<blockquote>The Church has never made any pronouncement in this regard. This is a mystery, truly inscrutable, which embraces the holiness of God and the conscience of man. The silence of the Church is, therefore, the only appropriate position for Christian faith. Even when Jesus says of Judas, the traitor, “It would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Matt. 26:24), his words do not allude for certain to eternal damnation (139).</blockquote>
Similarly, in a 2006 audience, Benedict XVI said,
<blockquote>Even though he went to hang himself (cf. Matt. 27:5), it is not up to us to judge his gesture, substituting ourselves for the infinitely merciful and just God (<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20061018.html">October 18, 2006</a>).</blockquote>
Despite these statements, <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/is-judas-in-hell">it has long been commonly held</a> that Judas is, in fact, damned. So how can we understand the traditional opinion in light of the possibility of Judas’s salvation that John Paul II and Benedict XVI hold out?
One approach is to review the evidence we have for Judas being in hell and seeing how conclusive it is.
A first type of evidence is something that many people may not be aware of: data from exorcism cases.
Christians are familiar with the concept of exorcism being used for possession by demons—that is, fallen angels. However, there are also occasional reports of spirit possession by human souls.
In Judaism, such spirits are referred to as dybbuks. A <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/dybbuk-Jewish-folklore">dybbuk</a> is “a disembodied human spirit that, because of former sins, wanders restlessly until it finds a haven in the body of a living person.”
Although dybbuks are more commonly associated with popular Jewish belief, they are also sometimes reported in Christian contexts, and that includes Judas. Exorcists periodically report that during the course of the rite, one of the possessing spirits will identify itself as a former human, typically a famous sinner such as the emperor Nero or Judas Iscariot.
If a possessing spirit identifies itself as Judas and speaks truthfully, then that would support the idea that Judas is a lost soul.
The difficulty is the “and speaks truthfully” part. Demons—and any human allies they have in the possession racket—are working for “the father of lies” (John 8:44), which means that you can’t trust anything they say.
Consequently, the 1614 rite of exorcism—which is still in use—warns that the exorcist must “be on his guard against the arts and subterfuges which the evil spirits are wont to use in deceiving the exorcist” (n. 5). Further, it specifically warns that “neither ought he to give any credence to the devil if the latter maintains that he is the spirit of . . . a deceased party” (n. 14).
The Church does not have a teaching on whether damned souls can ever possess the living, so this is an open question theologically. However, because of how untruthful possessing spirits are, their identity claims are not a reliable form of evidence, and the Church has warned us not to pay heed to such claims.
I thus don’t think we can rely on evidence from these cases to prove Judas is in hell.
Another source of evidence is the common opinion itself that Judas is damned, including by many Church Fathers.
The Holy Spirit guides Christian opinion—including the views of the Fathers—on matters of faith, and so this also could count as evidence for Judas’s damnation.
However, for it to be conclusive, two conditions would have to be met: (1) Judas’s damnation would have to be a matter of the Faith, and (2) the relevant parties would have to agree that this is definitively the case, meaning that there is absolutely no possibility of disputing it.
Neither of these seems fulfilled. For an infallible definition to occur, the members of the Magisterium (bishops teaching in union with the pope) must—at some point in time—come to a position where they are “in agreement on one position as definitively to be held” (<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html">Lumen Gentium 25</a>).
However, John Paul II and Benedict XVI indicate that they have not done this. When John Paul II says (above) that “the Church has never made any pronouncement” on individuals who are in hell, including Judas, then that means it doesn’t have a teaching on this position, much less a definitive one.
Individuals—including many of the Fathers—may hold the opinion that Judas is in hell, but opinions—no matter how common—are not infallible Church teachings. Consequently, we can’t appeal to this kind of evidence as conclusive of Judas’s damnation.
What about the idea that this might be a matter of the Faith? Here we come to the subject of what Scripture teaches. The reason that many in Catholic history have held Judas is damned is because of what Scripture says, so does this give us conclusive evidence?
John Paul II and Benedict XVI have already responded to the two passages in Scripture that one might appeal to.
John Paul II dealt with the passage where Jesus said, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24; see also Mark 14:21), and the pope said that Jesus’ words “do not allude for certain to eternal damnation.”
This is true. Although the warning is reasonably taken as meaning that Judas will go to hell because of what he has done, it—like biblical warnings in general about the consequences of sin—presupposes one thing: that the person does not repent (Jer. 18:7-10).
So if Judas were to heed the call, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19), then his sins would be blotted out.
Now, here’s the thing: Matthew’s Gospel—the same one where Jesus warns of Judas’s fate—goes on to say this:
<blockquote>When Judas, his betrayer, saw that he was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood” (Matt. 27:3-4).</blockquote>
Matthew says that Judas repented! He recognized that he had sinned and that Jesus was innocent, and he sought to return the money. When the priests refused to take it back, he threw it into the Temple (27:5a) so that he would not profit from his sin. That sounds like a sincere repentance!
But what about what Judas did next? He hanged himself (27:5b), and this is the second text one might appeal to for Judas’s damnation. Even if he repented of having betrayed Jesus, wouldn’t he still go to hell because of his suicide?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,
<blockquote>We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives (2283).</blockquote>
Suicide does not always result in hell because a person may not be fully responsible for his action due to lack of knowledge, or psychological factors, and because “in ways known to him alone,” God may help the person to repent—even in the act of committing suicide itself.
Judas thus may have been so grieved by his offense that he wasn’t fully responsible for his suicide, or he may have repented of taking his own life while he was still hanging from his neck.
As Pope Benedict said, “Even though he went to hang himself, it is not up to us to judge his gesture, substituting ourselves for the infinitely merciful and just God.”
It thus appears that we don’t have conclusive proof that Judas is in hell, and there is still a ray of hope for him.
This Holy Week, let us thank God for his mercy upon all of us. It is a mercy that—in principle—might extend even to Judas.

Hope for Judas?

@shamelesspopery did WHAT?? 😳

Is Salvation Possible for Non-Catholics?

<div>What do you do when someone only focuses on the bad stuff in the Church?</div><div>It depends on how well you know this person. If this person is merely an acquaintance, you can offer information that addresses that person&#8217;s concerns, and then move on if it is not received well. With someone you do know well, you can also offer information, but if it is not received well then you can politely ask that person for a respite from negative discussions. I recommend Joanna Bogle&#8217;s article <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/seek-something-to-be-glad-about">Seek Something to Be Glad About</a>.
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Focusing on the Bad

Chris Stefanick advises a caller who has trouble talking about the faith to people in his life, exhorting him to let it flow naturally from his true personality and make Jesus and prayer parts of his everyday interactions.
Transcript:
Host: We go to Brian in Ohio listening on 870 AM. Brian, you are on with Chris Stefanick, what&#8217;s your question?
Caller: Hi Chris, thanks for taking my call.
Chris: How&#8217;s it going, Brian? Good, good. Can you hear me now?
Host: We can, yes. Can you give Chris your question?
Caller: It&#8217;s sort of along the line of some of the more recent callers where, you know, modern Catholics seem to rely on institutions like CCD or Catholic schools, but they, you know, we have the adults even now where they don&#8217;t really know the faith and and therefore they don&#8217;t know Jesus. They more or less know, you know, rituals, and maybe some obligations, things like that. And you know, I learned my faith from my mother and my grandmother, as you talked about, but but you know I have a hard time introducing Jesus even within my own married family and and friends and things like that. Hopefully my question came along clearly.
Chris: Yes it did, thank you. So you said they don&#8217;t know the faith, therefore they don&#8217;t know Jesus; I think very often it&#8217;s the case that they don&#8217;t know Jesus, therefore they don&#8217;t really care about the faith, even if they kind of know it, you know? And I think it&#8217;s&#8211;again this stuff&#8211; to be an effective evangelist, it has just drip from who we are, you know? We have to bring up the name of Jesus in conversation as if he&#8217;s an intimate friend of ours. That doesn&#8217;t mean we have to force things or be awkward. Frankly, a lot of us feel like we&#8217;re forcing things when we&#8217;re NOT bringing up His name, cause He&#8217;s always on our minds, always in our hearts.
I would just encourage the average Catholic: Stop repressing yourself. Just start being who you are! You know, we were always who we were throughout Catholic history. I mean I&#8217;m half Irish, right? The traditional greeting in Ireland was &#8220;God and Mary be upon you.&#8221; Until maybe the 1950s, from the time of Saint Patrick. Uh, I&#8217;m half Slovak. [Slovakian greeting], &#8220;Praised be Jesus Christ,&#8221; is how you said &#8220;Hi.&#8221; You know, this is just dripped from our mouths, from our interactions. It was ingrained in us.
It&#8217;s still ingrained in us but, for that percentage of Catholics I know we are kind of small, kind of minority, who like, &#8220;This is the most important thing in our lives,&#8221; can we please just be ourselves? Just stop hiding, just stop worrying about the response you&#8217;re gonna get to that constantly. Stop thinking you&#8217;re gonna offend people all the time, because again, if you&#8217;re yourself in a way that&#8217;s joyful, that&#8217;s not giving in to frustrations of people who aren&#8217;t as far along as you are, in a way that you&#8217;re showing like, &#8220;I&#8217;m just in love with Jesus, he&#8217;s my friend,&#8221; you know, if someone&#8217;s having a hard day, just comes around the top of your head, you know, &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna pray for you.&#8221; Even if they don&#8217;t believe, you know, if they act offended to that, first of all that&#8217;s their issue, you know, but second of all, you planted a thought about God into their hearts and mind and they&#8217;re not gonna forget that, you know.
So with your family members, be patient but just keep being yourself, man. And just keep saying the name of Jesus in casual conversation. You know, in a way that&#8217;s not forced but just natural.

How to Evangelize: Be Yourself

Today is my oldest child’s twenty-eighth birthday. Every year, the arrival of August 4 (feast of St. John Vianney—pray for priests!) sets off a similar routine:
-I express incredulity at his advancing age, which surely can’t be that much less than my own at this point. Then I yell at neighborhood kids to get off my lawn.
-There are group texts and phone calls with him and his six siblings, who, I never stop feeling blessed to note, all love one another.
-I mention on Facebook or in a conversation that this is the anniversary of the day I “became a father.”
-I get shirty corrections from well-meaning people who inform me that I became a father when he was conceived, because pro-life.
Okay.
Look, I am as hard-core about the full humanity of the unborn as anyone, even among other pro-life Catholics. I tend to favor embryo adoption, for instance, where many Catholic moralists say (and it may be the more probable opinion of the Church) that it&#8217;s impermissible.
But although it’s technically correct that someone becomes a parent at the moment of his or her first child’s conception, in the sense that the unborn child is a full human being with a mother and a father, there is nonetheless a hiddenness to that child’s time in the womb. He hasn’t yet come into the world; there’s a still-to-be-completed aspect to the whole arrangement.
This is surely why we celebrate Christmas as a specially solemn feast, even more so than the Annunciation (when the Lord was conceived) or the Visitation (when John the Baptist leapt in the womb at his presence). The Incarnation has already occurred; Mary is the mother of God. But it’s only at the Nativity that the shrouded, silent intimacy of pregnancy gives way to the visible, audible, unmistakably public presence of God made man, in the world. 
Mary’s divine maternity, and the guardianship of God’s foster-father Joseph, become fully realized when Jesus is born. That’s why we devote whole seasons to preparing for and commemorating that birth.
And of course, it’s after a child is born that mother and father become fully initiated into all the subjective, practical, phenomenological aspects of parenthood—the love and care, the feedings and bodily fluids, the lost sleep and discipline and lifetime of worry that make even an adoptive parent a true father or mother. In a world where there is a sad and ever-growing distinction between being a dad or mom and being a mere baby-daddy or -mama, we shouldn’t let Pro-Life Prenatal Correctness bully us into ignoring that parenthood is as much about doing as being.
So happy birthday to Joe, my oldest boy, the man who made me a father twenty-eight years ago and who makes me proud every day. (And no, I don’t say “eldest”—that’s a topic for another post…)

When Did I Become a Dad?

<div>I was given only the host at a recent Mass, not the precious blood. Was this appropriate?</div><div>Yes. A full Communion is made when a communicant receives either the host or the precious blood. It is not necessary to receive both the host and the precious blood; in fact, for centuries the standard eucharistic protocol was for the laity to be given only the host.
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