CATHOLIC
FAMILY LIFE
MESSENGER

February 2007
Volume I No. 2



DOES EVERYONE
GO TO HEAVEN?

1. Please be advised that this topic will be hard on people who do not feel comfortable accepting the official teaching of the Catholic Church or those who have not reached the age of reason. Also, it is advised that because the topic is a bit extensive and complex, some of us should read most paragraphs very carefully, more than once (as the author has), and discuss it with those who are known to agree with the official teaching of the Catholic Church.

Introduction

2. Some say, especially at wakes or by funeral services, that when we die we are immediately united with the all-merciful and compassionate God in Heaven – together with all our friends and relatives that have died before us and those who will die after us will do the same. These “teach-ers” are, almost always, very nice people and most people are fascinated by them. They usually look happy, very friendly, and always seem to have a smile. They are very understanding if we tell them any of the naughty things we have done. They love to be at parties, always seem to want to make the others laugh during serious times, are not known to be harsh, and seem very compassionate and mer-ciful – just like God. It is assumed that these people mean well, have good intentions, and probably hope in their hearts that it should be as easy to go to Heaven as they sin-cerely believe. It is obvious that there are millions of Catholics (not to mentions non-Catholics) who feel it in their hearts that these things must be true.

3. Let us use a different view and approach the topic of Heaven in a more down-to-earth way (about the year of Our Lord 2007). For example: If our friendly Fr. X at our parish, or the gracious professor Y at the seminary and all the best Catholic theologians in the United States, or most of the good bishops at the Vatican, (or all of them together) say that we all go to Heaven when we die, will we go there anyway if it turns out that they (and we) are mistaken? In other words, because we sincerely feel or believe that these learned people are honest and are telling us what they be-lieve to be the truth, will we go to heaven for believing and doing what later turns out to be wrong? Example: if a Fr. X is blind (or confused or uninformed) and is leading others like him into a pit, all of them will fall into it, go under, and pay for it – not just Fr. X. (Mt. 15:14; Luke 6:39.) Why? Because we are responsible for our own actions and we are obligated to know what is right or wrong about ordi-nary faith and morals issues, regardless of your con-science or mine. In others words, truth is independent of, and is not determined by, our conscience, feelings or ma-jority.

4. Because the correct understanding of Heaven makes it much easier for anyone to be able get there, and because we have to make that choice freely, and because we have only one chance, it is extremely important to fully understand the seriousness of this topic before we leave this world. And, it seems reasonable to think, that only the true God, together with His real Son and the actual Church He founded in the year 33 want us to have the fullest under-standing of Heaven. Most of the rest of creation (especially those below) are in error and will try to deceive us with lies, half truths, deception, trickery, flattery, false praise, out of context and incomplete statements from the Bible and other Church documents, in addition to their use of tac-tics that could not have originated from God. Yes, evil ex-ists, so says the Bible and the Catechism!

Let us begin with the Bible

5. (Please note, when quoting the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican II and other Church documents the bold emphasis is by this editor.)

6. This is one of the passages used by many to show that we are all saved and go straight to Heaven when we die:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

7. If that is so, why did Jesus say:

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. But the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few"? (Mt. 7:13-14)

8. Or let us look at a similar passage from Luke 13:23-24:

"And some one said to him, 'Lord, will those who are saved be few?' And he [Jesus] said to them, 'Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able".

9. It is hard to see how these two passages, from St Mat-thew and St. Luke, could be just simple warnings, as many say. But even if they are “simple warnings” does anyone seriously think that we do not need to obey Jesus’ advice, or that He would die on the cross for useless warnings?

10. How about St. Paul, what does he say about being automatically saved? Well, let us begin with his letter to the Philippians 2:9-12:

"Every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess... Therefore, my be-loved...work out your own salvation with fear and trem-bling..."

11. If everyone is automatically saved, why would anyone need to work out his salvation “with fear and trembling"? If it were so, there would be nothing to work out. Just so that there will be no doubt about that, in the next chapter of Philippians (3:18-20) St Paul states:

"For many...live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction.... But our commonwealth is in heaven..."

12. Would you say that God would not allow destruction to happen to anyone? Or would you say that St. Paul is not telling the truth and is trying to deceive us? Would you be-lieve that the answer to both questions is no? Let us keep in mind that God does not force His will on us, even if we were to walk into quicksand – if that is what we choose to do. Yes, God is more pro-choice than anyone else has ever been, is, or will be. But, we have free-will, and He will not take it away from us even when we choose to go “South”. It is not easy going up against the crowd and the Devil (the Devil, as you know, is the one who messed up Adam and Eve and the rest of us) that is why St. Paul probably says (in the Bible) that we have to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

13. Let us continue with 1 Tim. 2:4, where St. Paul says God 

"Desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

14. There seems to be a contradiction between Phil. 3:18-20 (work out our salvation…) and Tim. 2:4 (God’s desire for us to be saved…). What do we do, are we saved or not?

15. It is true, more than humans, God desires that all peo-ple be saved – He would not be our Father if He did not. God also desires that we never sin -- but we do sin. None-theless, God is still truly God. Like it or not, God has cre-ated us like Himself and the angels, (but not like any of the animals) and that includes the freedom to do things con-trary to His desires and plans for us. That is true, but when we go against Him, God says that there are very, very sad consequences – mostly for us.

16. What about Vatican II? Does not Lumen Gentium, #48 state:

"The Church...will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly
reestablished in Christ."

17. Does that say that we are all saved after all? As many people know, when we omit words or take something out of context it cannot mean what was intended.

18. On that same point above in Lumen Gentium #48, St. Paul seems to have said it simpler but with more authority:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

19. And who is in Christ? St. Paul continues with:

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (v. 6), "those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (v. 8), and "if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you...will live" (v. 13).

20. As for Lumen Gentium, #48, it has more to say, but many people forget or refuse to quote it:

"We must be constantly vigilant so that, having finished the course of our earthly life, we may merit to enter into the marriage feast with Him and to be numbered among the blessed and that we may not be ordered to go into eternal fire like the wicked and slothful servant, into the exte-rior darkness where 'there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth' [Mt. 22:13 & 25:30]. For before we reign with Christ in glory, all of us will be made manifest 'before the tribunal of Christ [judgment day], so that each one may receive what he has won through the body, accord-ing to his works, whether good or evil' [2 Cor. 5:10], and at the end of the world, they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life; but those who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment'[Jn. 5:29]."

21. Many do not recognize the problem of those who knowingly reject truth and justice and give every indica-tion of choosing damnation. They try to excuse or justify themselves by quoting “big-time” theologians whose writ-ings have not been officially evaluated by the Catholic Church. Again, when any number of theologians believe that something is true, but the Catholic Church officially teaches otherwise, we have no choice but to believe the one that was appointed by Jesus to teach the truth. Those theologians who speculate on their own personal findings or feelings as new “findings” should be treated as tax collectors, especially when they insist on being heard by others outside of their specific academic circles, as other professions do. These “theologians” should always accept the testing process used by the Catholic Church, instead of becoming independent, puffed-up, and self worshippers.

22. One of the problems caused by the myth that everyone is saved, is that there is no need to continue to evangelize the ignorant, or correct anyone or anything. In other words, if we are saved (even without wanting to as some people say) and we all go to heaven when we die, why bother with anything at all? Image the fun we could have, the things we could do, (women, wine, and song for all men and women) and why not -- if we are already saved?

23. So, how does the position that everyone in the world goes to Heaven stack up against the official teaching of the Catholic Church? Not well at all, as we have already seen. But, because this is a concern extremely important to all people of good will, let us consider some more important points in this regard. If everyone automatically goes to Heaven, then basically no one has free will. On the other hand, the official teaching insists on free will when it says, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that:

"Human freedom.... has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back" (#1861).

24. Furthermore, those who do not go to Heaven do so by their own free choice (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1033). The second point to consider with much care is that if no one could possibly be lost, then the Church's teaching on mortal sin is null and void. The Catechism also says that

"To die in mortal sin without repenting and [not] accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him [God] for ever..." (#1033).

25. In his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II says, regarding those who suffer the loss of Heaven:

"With every freely committed mortal sin, he [man] of-fends God as the giver of the law and as a result becomes guilty with regard to the entire law (cf. Jas. 2:8-11); even if he perseveres in faith, he loses 'sanctifying grace,' 'charity' and 'eternal happiness.' As the Council of Trent teaches, 'the grace of justification once received is lost not only by apostasy, by which faith itself is lost, but also by any other mortal sin'" (#68).

26. It is unbelievable and beyond human imagination to think that no one has ever died in a state of mortal sin. Are we expected to believe that everyone who was dying in a state of mortal sin repented just before he actually died? If anyone wishes to build his hopes on easy entrance to Heaven on such wishful thinking, he is doing it without any help from the Bible or official Catholic teaching. It is not uncommon to hear of people who die without a moment's notice and probably unaware and unable to repent.

27. There are many who say that the references to the “place under” in Scripture are just "warnings from the all-loving God." Not so, because there are serious problems with the notion of God giving us warnings. If the refer-ences to the “place under” are only warnings, they would be empty warnings, if everyone goes to Heaven anyway. No one in real life, including God, warns others about things that will not happen. Yet, fools believe that God bluffs (lies) to trick us in to Heaven. If the Bible is lying about the most important issue in the universe -- what we must do to be saved -- then the Bible could well be lying about anything and everything else. If no one goes to the place under, then all the talk about it in the Bible -- and from the Church for the last 2000 years -- is absolutely cruel, unnecessarily nasty, and maybe sadistic. In addition, all other Church difficult moral teachings amount to noth-ing more than malice, if at the end of this life we cannot go anywhere else but Heaven.

28. Let us mention some examples: Many Catholic women who freely choose to have an abortion for serious reasons cannot understand why the Church demands that they should carry the baby to term. These women believe that they will go to Heaven even if they are not sorry for the abortion later. They believe that the Church is unrea-sonable and uncharitable for giving them guilty feelings about their mortal sin.

29. Many men and women say that it is exceedingly cruel for the Church to insist that homosexuals must not engage in sexual activity of any kind and for any reason. It's also 
grossly unfair to deny homosexuals a marriage ceremony if that is what they want.

30. It is sadistic to insist that people living with a painful terminal illness -- and who feel they are a burden on the medical system and their relatives -- not be allowed to end life all with the help of a physician. Why make people suf-fer on earth when they can immediately exchange their ag-ony for the automatic and eternal bliss of Heaven?

31. The Church teaches that a Catholic who divorces and "remarries" outside the Church must abstain from Holy Communion, and can only be admitted to Communion if he and his “spouse” live as brother and sister. Many feel that the Church is merciless and uncaring.

32. Let us say you practice Calendar Rhythm and you've already got seven children, and you and your husband live in a two-bedroom apartment in a crime-ridden neighbor-hood. Since Rhythm doesn't seem to work for you, why not let the man get a vasectomy so your family can es-cape near-poverty?

33. Or if you're a Catholic who is being persecuted and threatened with imprisonment or death because you profess Christ and His Vicar on Earth, why not deny your faith and save yourself and family terrible suffering? Instead, the Church reminds us of all the martyrs who were tortured and died for the Catholic Faith. Is not the Church suggest-ing a dreadful and perverse invitation to enjoyment of hard-ship?

34. If everyone is saved and goes straight to Heaven, then the Catholic Church is -- as secular and religious liberals say -- a torture chamber, a house of horrors, and a cunning power structure based on a Big Lie whose real purpose is to repress and oppress people. If every one is saved, then the Catholic Church should join the denominations that be-lieve that and drop her condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, promiscuity, divorce, etc.

35. For the sake of discussion, let us take the “everyone-is-saved” idea a step further: (1) If everyone is saved, why go to Confession, since your sins were already forgiven on the cross by the all-loving God? (2) If missionaries don't take Christ to non-Christian lands because Jesus died for every one on earth, then why bother to get out of bed on Sun-day morning and march off to Mass, for surely the all mer-ciful Christ is with you right there in bed? (3) If you're a priest, why not have sexual relations with anyone, so long as it is with adults and thus there's negligible danger the diocese will be hit with a lawsuit? (4) If your wife is getting old, grey, wrinkled, and boring, and there is a twen-ty-something cupcake at work who is hot to trot, why not have a careful fling and feel young again? (5) If you publish a Christian periodical and you struggle to spread the Word, why not publish pornographic material in-stead? You will have lots more fun and you'll probably get rich? In short, why bother to keep the Faith and try hard to be good? Why bother to care, if everyone is saved?

36. Perhaps, for those priests or theologians who feel that they are living saints here on earth (because, like Mary, they were immaculately conceived), it is appropriate for them to believe that they will go straight to Heaven. For the rest of us poor sinners, why should we take a chance with the limited knowledge of these modern day here-tics, and disregard the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church regarding Heaven and other doctrine? Makes no sense, does it?

37. Yes, the Bible does address this topic in very clear lan-guage. For example:

"He who believes in [or obeys] the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him" (John 3:36).

38. Those are very nasty and ugly words Jesus said. Did He forget about His Father’s “unconditional” love? NO, the fact is that “unconditional love of God” is not written anywhere in Church documents, including the Bible! It is an absurd concept and pure speculation. Whereas for repentant sinners when the grace of God seems far away, when doubt aggravates us, when tempta-tion lurks, we bother to care -- we persevere in our trials, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as St. Paul says-- precisely because we want to spend our eternity with the Lord above, not with the Devil down under.

39. Probably, one of the best ways to miss out on Heaven is to assume that we will go there no matter what we do. Yes, the Devil must love the heretics when they speak for him and say: believe me and follow my advice, assume that you will go to heaven, but, in low whisper, the Devil continues with: you will be easy prey for my lies and false promises and I will easily take you down under with me. The thief says the same thing: do not turn the alarm on, re-lax, this is a safe neighborhood, next door is a better house to steal from, don’t worry, be happy, party all you want.

40. Furthermore, if everyone involuntarily goes to Heaven, would someone please tell the rest of us, and the Catholic Church, why we are here? If life on Earth is not a testing ground, where we must decide whether we say yes or no to God and His love by obeying Him, what is the point of be-ing here? Why did God not place us in Heaven right from the start? Or, why did Jesus not take us with Him when he went to Heaven – after all His redemption was complete and total. Why would God waste so much or our time on Earth, when we could have been in Heaven with Him im-mediately after the resurrection?

41. Another interesting question is: why is there evil? The proper answer is that evil is the result of people having free will and some choose it. But if we are not really free -- if ultimately we can only go to Heaven, then why is there evil? We should all pray to God to order the Devil to stop tempting people because we are going to Heaven no matter what we do.

42. When Heaven is the only place for humans, life itself does not make sense for Christians. If everyone goes to Heaven, everything is OK. If everyone goes to Heaven, then why did Jesus say: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8, 36.) We all read and hear about people who dishonestly grab for wealth and power, who walk over on the poor and the rights of others, who commit crimes, even murder, in their successful quests to gain the whole world, as it were. We may wonder, "Do they not care that they are in grave danger of losing their souls?" Of this kind of people Jesus said, "You fool! This night your soul will be required of you..." (Luke. 12:20). But if these heretics are right, Jesus is a liar and we are the fools for not getting on the Love Boat to earthly happiness. That is impossible.

43. The words below were spoken by the Lord to Ezekiel and to those of us who believe that Heaven is not easy to get into; furthermore, He is enlightening us about what we should say to the wicked (heretics) who profess that every-one has a free ticket to Heaven or any other serious lie:

"If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, but you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life." (33:8-9).

44. Oh well, so much for minding our own business and keeping religion to ourselves. In other words, we are to warn one another on serious matters. And why does the wicked man need further warning if the Lord has already warned him? Because "conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin” (Cate-chism, #1791). Yes, we have to remind ourselves that "the 
wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), and without warning him, the wicked man would not be effectively warned, and we would have to explain to Jesus why we did not listen to Our Father’s command.

45. Who are these people that speak such heretical words against the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church? If theologians like Fr. Hans Küng, Fr. Richard McBrien, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Fr. Richard John Newhaus were the ones being accused, many of us would easily un-derstand. However, heretical statements are spoken in every neighborhood, although most would not be as elo-quent or as tall as the former. If some of us have heard no heretical statements from anyone, it is time to wake up, be more attentive in church and act on God’s words to Eze-kiel. As a matter of fact, the whole (short) book of Ezekiel is very inspiring to people who care and very threatening to those who do not care.

46. If we belong to the true Catholic Church, we have to willingly choose to believe the Bible and the Church’s offi-cial teachings, which she is mandated by God to pass on to us. As Jesus Christ said, the Evil One will never overcome the Church He founded, and she is the one who interprets the truth about Heaven. Any or all personal feelings are useless and worthless compared to God’s doctrine as taught by His Church. Those of us who want to do God’s will and please Him (instead of ourselves) have no choice but to believe -- and teach -- what the Bible and the Catholic Church officially teach about all things.

47. Yes, it is frightening, but very true, how heretics, fools, and ignoramuses will make dogmatic statements to-tally contrary to the official teaching of the Catholic Church. Yet, we should know that NO ONE, who is in unity with the official teaching of the Catholic Church, can possibly know who is going to Heaven and who is not. (Heretics are the biggest problem because they are often dressed in sheep’s clothing.) As most Catholics know, the Pope can proclaim others to be saints but not himself or anyone else before death arrives. So, should anyone say to you: “I know that I am going to Heaven when I die”, we should know that the statement is totally contrary to Catholic Church Teaching. Let us hope that our prayers are beneficial to him/her. Ultimately, our only concern should be to know what we should do to make ourselves worthy to go to Heaven but Jesus will decide where we go.

48. Why do some of us bother to care for others so much? Because we do not presume that anyone will be saved automatically. We bother to care for others because we want to be with Jesus in Heaven and do what we can to see as many people as possible share in that fathomless and unending joy. Only the truth, as proclaimed by the official teaching of the Catholic Church, will free us from our sins, definitely not wishful thinking or personal perception.
(To be continued in Volume I, Issue No. 3)

Credits

49. Although the editor is fully responsible for the above treatment of Heaven, he is very thankful for the Catholic Bible and other Church documents mentioned above, and for Catholic groups that recognize the correct teaching of the Catholic Church. Among these is the NEW OXFORD REVIEW (NOR) for granting permission to quote from their vast resources of information on the topic of Heaven and related topics. NOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1977 as an Episcopal group. Fortunately, truth would not have it so, and for the last 25 years, after the whole staff converted to Catholicism, it has had some of the best material on things Catholic. If you like the clear facts, then visit and feast on their articles published since 1995 on their website at: newoxfordreview.org, or write to them at 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706. Also, VOICES, is another Catholic publication by Women for Faith & Family. Their magazine and website are very in-formative; try them at: www.wf-f.org. And, do not miss Catholic Answers and their THIS ROCK magazine, in ad-dition to their enormous website at: www.catholic.com. Yes, there are other Catholic publications that defend the truth (the official teaching of the Catholic Church); do you know of some others?

How was the first issue?

50. The first issue of Catholic Family Life Messenger (CFLM) included the following topics: What should you or I do if someone wrongs us in any away? What are our rights and obligations in the Catholic Church when we witness error? What is a hypocrite? How did we become free? Did it just happen by magic? Copies of all past issues are always available from the editor or from CFLM.BLOGSPOT.COM.

51. As of February 15, according to the feedback received by e-mail, regular mail, phone, etc., they (responses) were quite inter-esting. Not to impose on anyone, names will not be used. Two ladies asked that their names be removed from the list, no reason was given; two priests had positive responses; an attorney said she is proud to know the editor; a retired professor would like to write short articles for it in the near future; another gentleman, because he thought it was very good, helped the editor to make it available on the internet at: cflm.blogspot.com; another gen-tleman had no problem with it, but wishes to wait a while before endorsing it; several friends said it was worth reading and wanted to know more about the reasons for its origin; 71.42% of our chil-dren responded approvingly; our advisors think it is great and is needed in the Church because of the confusion caused by many of its leaders. By the way, the first issue was given a very positive sign of approval, and permission to distribute on parish grounds, by the editor’s pastor, and had the former been wide awake, it would have been mentioned in the first issue. So, there you have it (the scoop). About 650 copies of Issue 1 were sent out, which included four bishops and 29 priests. Do you know of any-one who should be sent a copy of this newsletter? Let us know.

52. More good news: the editor was informed by his pastor, after he reviewed this issue, that the treatment of Heaven is thorough and no corrections were needed. Also, Family Life Promotion of New York, Inc., (FLP) a not-for-profit Catholic organization es-tablished in 1971 to provide information on family life issues, has unanimously agreed to publish CFLM pending a minor confirma-tion. Furthermore, help is needed in every aspect of producing CFLM, and if you are in doubt on how you could help, contact the editor for more information.

53. As always, please feel free to comment on any aspect of CFLM. Opinions expressed in CFLM, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Board of Directors of FLP or its associates.

What about the next issue of CFLM?

54. God willing, we hope to continue with the topic of Heaven as it pertains to non-Catholics, and we hope to go to Heaven after Jesus says so. In addition, what is con-science, and how much authority does it have; is “let your conscience be your guide” always good advice? And, why many mistakenly talk about God’s unconditional love; what we should not judge about others and what we must judge, and other topics suggested by our readers. Remind-ers, Feel free to contact the editor, Carmelo Fallace, at CFLM@optonline.net, or write to him at P.O. Box 115, Lake Grove, NY 11755, or call him at (631) 235-7297.

55. A news report (2-15-2007) indicated that Catholicism (Roman) is about to become the main religion in Britain for the first time since the Reformation (circa 1525). Thanks be to God, there is Divine justice, and most of us should drink some good red wine to that.

56. Feel free to copy this entire report,
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© Feb.-2007