The Matter of Hell

The Matter of Hell

Fr. Barron "Is Hell Crowded or Empty?":

Michael Voris, "Fr. Barron is Wrong"

One must conclude that Fr. Barron is indeed "wrong" on this matter, as Voris points out.  There is and can be no "hope" that "all are saved," it's simply not possible and Scripture is quite clear on the matter.  While I would agree with Fr. Barron that God doesn't send anyone to Hell and that those who find themselves there actually sent themselves to this eternal damnation the fact remains "many are called but few are chosen" (Matt 22:14).  Fr. Barron does not commit to a complete apocatastasis (complete restoral of all free souls to grace, including the fallen angels and Satan himself) but he explicitly states there can be "hope" to that end, and that, my friends, is scandalous at best and perhaps even heretical.  Why would I go as far as to say it may be heretical?  Apocatastics is formally condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople:

The Anathemas Against Origen.
  I.   If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert   the monstrous restoration which follows from it:  let him be anathema. 

http://americancatholictruthsociety.com/docs/councils/05Constantinople2_canons.htm

It is that "monstrous restoration" which is apocatastasis and thus there can be no "hope" that "all souls" will one day be restored, period. Fr. Barron argues that such hope can exist because of the "dramatic thing that God did through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus." We cannot hold to this hope when we find one of the primary sources in Scripture to speak of Hell is Jesus Christ Himself!

Matt 5:22  Matt 5:29-30  Matt 10:28  Matt 11:23   Matt 13:41-43  Matt 16:18  Matt 18:9  Matt 23:15 Matt 25:31-46  Mark 9:43-47  Luke 10:15  Luke 12:5  Luke 16:22-28   Revelation 20:15 (Angel of the Lord) 

(Hover over the above verses to read them)

Why speak of and teach of Hell if there is a possibility that no one is going there?  Simple logic defies Fr. Barron's "hope" here.  No one who accepts the Scriptures above can reasonably hold a theologically sound position that there is hope for the salvation of all people.  

Let this article be a plea to Fr. Barron to publicly retract what he said in the above video and express with the same conviction not only for the existence of Hell, but also that it is impossible for it to be "empty."