Why So Many People Go to Hell by Lyle Arnold

Faith under Attack

Why So Many People Go to Hell

Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.

With all the evidence manifested by God confirming the truth of Catholicism, why has the heresy of Progressivism, spawned by the Second Vatican Council, spread like a loathsome virus throughout the Church? Why aren't there more counter-revolutionary Catholics in the ranks of Our Lady's remnant?

St. Michael weighing souls

The teaching of St. Leonard of Port Maurice sheds light on this tragedy. In his sermon about the small number of Catholics that are saved, he advises that supporting his thesis - that most "Catholic adults" go to Hell - are countless references of Fathers of the Church, both Greek and Latin as well as learned theologians and historians.

In developing this topic, he states, "Note well that there is no question here of the human race taken as a whole, nor of all Catholics taken without distinction, but only of Catholic adults." (1)

St. Leonard's thinking is free of any form of Jansenism, as he is a very revered 18th century saint. His primary tools in conversion were the Way of the Cross, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Sacred Heart. He also made zealous efforts to get the Immaculate Conception defined as a dogma of the Faith. Lastly, the soundness of his argument that few are saved has earned it the approbation of the Church.

Divine interventions in History

One can wonder why so few are saved when God has provided man with so many miracles and manifestations of the truth of the Faith in History. Numerous inexorable facts show the mercy of Our Lady and her efforts to draw souls to her Son and the Holy Church.

One such item was recently published by Tradition in Action titled A Lady in Blue Instructs Indians in the U.S. The story is about Mother Mary of Agreda, who bilocated from Spain to the southwestern New World between 1620 and 1631. During this time she instructed the natives in the Catholic Faith during some 500 visits. Our Lord told her that He allowed her to come to the New World to catechize those Indians because He wanted to save their souls.

In 10 years Mary of Agreda bilocated over 500 times to the U.S. to teach the Indians

What makes this miracle especially remarkable is the fact that these bilocations are documented even in secular histories. In a history of the Lone Star State, Randolph Campbell records the episode of the “truly strange occurrence in 1629.” He continues:

“In July of that year, a group of Jumanos from the Trans-Pecos area arrived at the Franciscan Convent near modern Albuquerque, having come, they said on the advice of a beautiful young woman who had mysteriously appeared to them in Texas. From her they claimed to have gained basic knowledge of Christianity, especially the Sign of the Cross. Moreover, the `Lady in Blue,' as she became known because she wore a blue cloak with her brown and white habit, had urged the Indians to go to New Mexico to find religious teachers. The arrival of the Jumanos, which would have excited the Franciscans under any circumstances, was doubly amazing because of a letter they had just received from the Archbishop of New Spain concerning the claims of a young nun in Spain." (2)

But the account of Mary of Agreda's visits to America is hardly an isolated case of God’s intervention in History. Another case is reported in historical documentation of the Hundred Years' War (1396-1457) between France and England. The French victory and the subsequent crowning of the Dauphin as Charles VII was achieved by the extraordinary leadership of a peasant girl born in eastern France, St. Joan of Arc. (3).

Other instances of divine intervention confirmed by scholars occur at Lourdes, where there is a body of doctors unconnected to religion that verifies the miracles that take place there. Some of the miracles involve the instantaneous creation of matter. For example, one such case involved a person who lost a part of his broken bone: it became shorter and never healed. For eight years the victim suffered from abscesses and running sores that had to be treated daily. In one instant the one-inch gap was filled in and the bone was completely healed. The body of doctors confirmed the miraculous cure. (4)

An equally unusual case is that of a woman who was blind, her optic nerves completely destroyed. At Lourdes, the woman was cured instantaneously, and her doctor stated, "How can you see, madame, when you have no papillae?" (5)

Then there is the lesser known miracle of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in New Orleans. As Dr. Horvat pointed out in her article, for the last 195 years, a Mass is celebrated every January 8 to honor her intercession in the miraculous defeat of the English.

A composer by the name of Christopher Hedge composed a fiddle song "The Eighth of January," and lyrics were written by Jimmie Driftwood. (click here to listen). Late country-western singer Johnny Horton made the ballad a top hit – it was number two on the Hit Parade of 1959. Nothing, of course, is in the lyrics about the miracles of Our Lady, but any student of American History that looks into this battle will learn how Our Lady of Prompt Succor gave the victory to American troops.

And let us not forget the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, which 70,000 people witnessed.

Why people go to Hell?

So, how can one explain that most adult Catholics go to Hell? Normally the simplest explanation or strategy is often the correct one.

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's teaches that God gives more grace to some because He loves them more. Thus Our Lord gave the grace of salvation to the thief on His right because He loved him more than the bandit on the left. This gift of grace is completely gratuitous. (6)

We see this at play from the beginning of History with the creation of the Angels, who in an instant made their decision whether or not to follow God. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange lays out this criterion on how they chose:

"At first they received a more explicit intelligence of the being of God, one in substance, trine in person, and they were commanded to adore and reverence Him as their Creator and highest Lord, infinite in his essence and attributes. All subjected themselves to this command and obeyed it, but with a certain difference: The good Angels obeyed through love and on account of the justice of it, offering their love and good will, freely admitting and believing what was above their intelligence, and obeying with joy. Lucifer, on the other hand, submitted because the opposite seemed to him impossible. He did not do it with perfect charity, for he, as it were, was divided in his will between himself and the infallible truth of the Lord." (7)

The outcome we know.

So, let us reflect on the topic that most adult Catholics go to Hell. As St. Leonard said in his sermon, the subject "is a very grave one; it has caused even the pillars of the Church to tremble, filled the greatest Saints with terror and populated the deserts with anchorites." (8)

Most people, however, pay little attention to either the Saint’s warning or to the miracles God gives us. Among those people Catholics are included, of course, as evinced by the ubiquitous heresy of Progressivism. What we should do to avoid Hell is to imitate the good Angels in their trial. That is, we should love God with disinterest and offer everything we have for His glory. Nothing can be more efficacious for that end than to recommend ourselves to Our Lady’s care. She is the Door of Heaven - Porta coeli.

After doing this, let our thoughts be turned to action. Let us fight valiantly for the glory of God and Our Lady and battle unrelentingly to rid the Church of the Progressivism that infests it.

1. Leonard of Port Maurice, "The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved," The Fatima Crusader, 17000 State Route 30, Constable, NY, May 2009.
2. Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas – A History of the Lone Star State, University of North Texas, Oxford University Press, NY, 2003, page 38.
3. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor Dupuy, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History, NY: HarperCollins, 1993, p 451
4. Ruth Cranston, The Miracle of Lourdes, NY: Popular Library, 1957, pp 130-131.
5. Ibid, pp 24-25.
6. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Predestination, Tan Books, p. 157. 7. Ibid. 8. Leonard of Port Maurice, "The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved"

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Posted on February 10, 2010

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