(March 11, 2016 at 10:35 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: You are not wrong:Okay, let's say an Italian mobster kills dozens of people. They do not have the chance to confess-- and if they were hard of heart at the time of their deaths, they will be separated from goodness and love, and will be in Hell, whether that's a place or a spiritual state or whatever. Then the mobster, after sending dozens to hell, confesses on death's bed, with his heart full of goodness and love. He's going to Heaven, right?
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/18/arts/h...gewanted=1
What we believe is that, since God is goodness and love, we truly reject Him by rejecting those things. So separation from God in the afterlife means you have chosen to turn away from goodness and love. You have completely hardened your heart. You have nothing but hate and contempt. That's miserable for a human because we were made for love, and we need it to be happy. That's what the majority of us consider "Hell" now a days.
See, this is the thing-- Christians keep talking about free will, but not about victims whose free will is superceded by that of their attackers. They lose their chance for salvation, and this in itself should be enough to condemn their attackers-- no matter how many indulgences they can afford to pay for, or how sincerely they beg for forgiveness at their lives' end.
One more thing-- WHY can't you see that the constantly evolving positions of the Catholic church demonstrate that the institution is based on made-up fairy tales?