Bella,

The following explanation was found among the papers left by a nun, called Sr Claire, who passed away in a convent in southern Germany. A young lady, known as Anne N, died in a car accident in 1937, in the German State of Bayern and was condemned to Hell for all eternity. On receiving the news of her death, her workmate Claire V, like all good Christians, prayed for the peaceful repose of her soul.

Here, word for word, is the Letter from Beyond written by the deceased Anne, to her workmate Claire, asking her not to bother praying for her because she was already condemned to hell for all eternity. It is somewhat lengthy, print it out if you must. But please do read it, as often as you can.

In my youth, I had a friend, Anne, who lived near my house. We were mutually attached as companions and co-workers in the same office. After Anne married, I never saw her again. We never had what can be called a real friendship, but rather an amiable relationship. For this reason, when she married well and moved to a better neighborhood far from my home, I didn't really miss her that much.

In mid-September of 1937 while vacationing at Lake Garda, my mother wrote me a letter informing me that : "Imagine, Anne N. died. She lost her life in an automobile accident. She was buried yesterday in M. cemetery."

I was shocked by the news. I knew that Anne had never been very religious. Was she prepared when God called her suddenly from this life? The next morning I assisted at Mass in the chapel of the convent boarding house where I was rooming. I prayed fervently for the eternal rest of her soul and offered my Holy Communion for that intention.

Throughout the day I was unsettled, and that night I slept fitfully. Once, I awoke suddenly, hearing something that sounded like my door being opened. Startled, I turned on the light, noting that the time on the clock on my nightstand showed ten minutes after midnight. The house was quiet and I saw nothing unusual. The only sound was from the waves of Lake Garda breaking monotonously on the garden wall. There was no wind. Nonetheless, I thought I heard something else after the rattling of the door, a swooshing sound like something being dropped. It reminded me of when my former office manager was in a bad mood and dropped some problem papers on my desk for me to resolve.

Should I get up and look around? I wondered. But since all remained quiet, it didn't seem worthwhile. It was probably just my imagination, somewhat overwrought by the news of the death of my friend. I rolled over, prayed several Our Fathers for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, and returned to sleep. I then dreamed that I arose at six to go to morning Mass in the house chapel. Upon opening the door of my room, I stepped on a parcel containing the pages of a letter. I picked it up and recognized Anne's handwriting. I cried out in fright. My fingers trembled, and my mind was so shaken I couldn't even think to say an Our Father. I felt like I was suffocating, and needed open air to breathe. I hastily finished arranging myself, put the letter in my purse, and rushed from the house.

On this morning, however, I was oblivious to everything around me. After walking a quarter of an hour, I sank mechanically to the ground on the riverbank between two cypress trees where only the day before I had been happily reading a novel, Lady Teresa. For the first time I looked at the cypress trees conscious of them as symbols of death, something I had taken no notice of before, since these trees are quite common here in the south.

I took the letter from my purse. There was no signature, but it was, beyond any doubt, the handwriting of Anne. There was no mistaking the large, flowing S or the French T she made that used to irritate Mr. G. at the office. It was not, however, written in her usual style of speaking, which was so amiable and charming, like her, with those blue eyes and elegant nose. Only when we discussed religious topics did she become sarcastic and take on the rude tone and agitated cadence of the letter I now began to read.


Claire!

Do not pray for me. I am damned. Do not think that I am telling you this and certain circumstances and details about my condemnation as a sign of friendship. Here we no longer love anyone. I do it on the command of "that power that never desires Evil and always does Good."

In truth, I would like to see you here where I will remain forever. Do not be surprised that I should say this. We all think the same way here. Our will is hardened in evil - in what you call "evil." Even when we do something "good," as I do now in opening your eyes about Hell, it is not with any good intention.

Even though I tried to avoid Him, God sought me out. I prepared the way for grace by the works of natural charity I often did, following the natural inclination of my nature. At times, too, God attracted me to a church. When I took care of my sick mother even after a hard day of work at the office, which was no small sacrifice for me, I strongly felt these attractions to the grace of God.

Once, in the hospital chapel where you used to take me during our free time at mid-day, I was so moved that I found myself just one step away from conversion. I wept.

The pleasures of the world, however, shortly swept me up in a torrent and drowned out this grace. The thorns choked out the wheat. Making the rationalization that religion is sentimentalism, the argument I heard at the office, I cast away this grace also, like so many others.

Once you reprimanded me because instead of genuflecting in church, I made only a slight inclination of my head. You thought it was laziness, not suspecting that I already no longer believed in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. I believe it now, although only naturally, as one believes in a storm, by perceiving its signs and effects.

Do you remember when we worked together for four years in M. You were 23 and had already worked in the office for a half year when I arrived. You helped me out many times, and frequently gave me good advice while you were training me. But what is meant by that term "good"? At the time I praised your "charity." How ridiculous! You helped me to please your own vanity, as I suspected at the time. Here we don't acknowledge good in anyone!

You knew me in my youth, but I will fill in certain details. According to my parents' plans, I never should have existed. The disgrace of my conception was due to their carelessness. When I was born, my two sisters were already 14 and 15 years of age. How I wish that I had never been born! I wish I could annihilate myself at this moment and escape these torments! There could be no pleasure greater than to be able to end my existence, to do away with myself like a piece of cloth reduced to ashes, leaving no remnant behind.(3) But I must exist. I must be as I have made myself, bearing the total blame for how I have ended.

Before my parents married, they had moved away from their country villages to the city and drifted away from the Church, making friends with others who had fallen away from the practice of the faith. They met at a dance, and six months later they were "obliged" to get married. During the wedding ceremony a few drops of holy water fell on them, just enough to draw my mother to Sunday Mass a few times a year. She never taught me to pray correctly. She wore herself out over material concerns, even when our situation was not difficult.

It is only with deep repugnance and unspeakable disgust that I write words such as pray, Mass, holy water, and church. I profoundly detest those who go to church, along with everyone and everything in general. For us, everything is a torture. Everything we came to understand at death, every recollection of life and of what we knew, is like a burning flame that torments us.

All of these memories only show us the horrible sight of the graces we rejected. How this tortures us now! We do not eat, we do not sleep, we do not walk with human legs as you know. Enchained in spirit, we reprobates stare with terror at our misspent lives, howling and gnashing our teeth, tormented and filled with hatred.

Do you hear me? Here we drink hatred as if it were water. We all hate one another. (5) And more than anything else, we hate God. I will try to make you understand how this is.

The blessed in Heaven must necessarily love Him, for they constantly behold Him in His awe-inspiring beauty. That makes them indescribably happy. We know this, and that knowledge fills us with fury.

On earth, men know God through Creation and Revelation and are able to love Him, but they are not forced to do so. The believer - I say this seething with fury - who contemplates and meditates upon Christ extended on the Cross will love Him.

But when God approaches as Avenger and Judge, the soul who rejected Him will hate Him, as we hate Him. That soul hates Him with all the strength of its perverse will. It hates Him eternally, by virtue of its deliberate resolution to reject God with which it ended its earthly life. This perverse act of the will can never be revoked, nor would we ever want to do so.

I am forced to add that even now God is still merciful to us. I say "forced" because even though I willingly write this letter, I cannot lie as I would like to. Much of what I put on this paper I write against my will. I also have to choke down the torrent of insults I would like to spew out against you and everything.

The new custom of allowing children to receive Holy Communion at seven years of age infuriates us. We strive in every possible way to frustrate this, to make people believe that a child is too young to properly comprehend what Communion is or to think that children must commit serious sins before they can receive. The "white" host [that is, the Sacred Host] will then be less damaging than if He were received with faith, hope, and love, the fruits of Baptism - I spit upon all this! - which are still alive in a heart of a child. Do you recall that I already had this same point of view on earth?

Marta K. and you made me enroll in a sodality for young women. I never told you how absurd I found the instructions of the two directors, although the games were amusing enough. As you know, I quickly came to play a preponderant role in them, which flattered me. I also found the excursions pleasant. I even allowed myself at times to be taken to Confession and receive Holy Communion. I really had nothing to confess, for I never paid heed to answering for my thoughts and sentiments. And I was still not ready for worse things.

One day you admonished me: "Anne, you will be lost if you don't pray more." In truth I prayed very little, and always reluctantly and with annoyance. You were indisputably right. All those who burn in Hell either did not pray or did not pray enough. Prayer is the first step toward God. It is always decisive, especially prayer to that one who is the Mother of God, whose name it is not licit to pronounce. Devotion to her draws innumerable souls away from the devil, souls who by their sins would otherwise have fallen into his hands.

I continue, but with fury, being obliged to do so. Praying is the easiest thing one can do on earth. God rightly linked salvation to this simplest of actions. To those who persevere in prayer, God grants, little by little, so much light and strength that even a drowning sinner can be raised up and saved, even if he is immersed in mud up to his chest. In fact, in the last years of my life I no longer prayed at all, and thus deprived myself of the graces without which no one can be saved.

I never believed in the action of the devil, but now I attest that the devil exercises a powerful influence over persons such as I was then. Only many prayers on the part of others and myself, together with sacrifices and sufferings, would have managed to wrench me away from him. And then only slowly.

(Devils and demons are the names given to the evil spirits that exercise this influence. For proof of their existence two texts from Holy Scriptures suffice: 1 Peter 5: 8 - "Be sober and watch, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour" ).

Ephes. 6:11-12 - "Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places" ).

There are very few persons who are physically possessed by the devil, but many who are possessed interiorly. The devil cannot take the free will from those who give themselves over to his influence. Yet as a chastisement for one's almost total apostasy from God, He permits that person to be dominated by "evil."

I hate the devil, and yet I like him because he and his helpers, the angels that fell with him at the beginning of time, strive to make you lose your souls. There are myriads of demons. Uncountable numbers of them wander through the world like swarms of flies, their presence not even suspected. Condemned souls like us are not the ones who tempt you; this is left to the fallen spirits. (10) Our torments increase every time they bring another soul to Hell, but we still want to see everyone condemned. Hatred is capable of anything!

(Summa Theologica, Suppl., Q. 98, a. 6, ad. 2: "Men who are damned are not occupied in drawing others to damnation, as the demons are.")

(Ibid., Q. 98, a. 4, ad. 3: "Although an increase in the number of the damned results in an increase of each one's punishment, so much the more will their hatred and envy increase that they will prefer to be more tormented with many, rather than less tormented alone.")


Even though I tried to avoid Him, God sought me out. I prepared the way for grace by the works of natural charity I often did, following the natural inclination of my nature. At times, too, God attracted me to a church. When I took care of my sick mother even after a hard day of work at the office, which was no small sacrifice for me, I strongly felt these attractions to the grace of God.

Once, in the hospital chapel where you used to take me during our free time at mid-day, I was so moved that I found myself just one step away from conversion. I wept.

The pleasures of the world, however, shortly swept me up in a torrent and drowned out this grace. The thorns choked out the wheat. Making the rationalization that religion is sentimentalism, the argument I heard at the office, I cast away this grace also, like so many others.

Once you reprimanded me because instead of genuflecting in church, I made only a slight inclination of my head. You thought it was laziness, not suspecting that I already no longer believed in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. I believe it now, although only naturally, as one believes in a storm, by perceiving its signs and effects.

In the meantime, I had found for myself a religion. The general opinion in the office, that after death a soul would return to this world as another being, with an endless succession of dying and returning again, pleased me. With this, I shut out the distressing problem of the hereafter to the point that I imagined it no longer troubled me.

Why didn't you remind me of the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus, in which the narrator sent one to Hell and the other to Paradise after they died? But what good would this reminder have done? I would have just considered it just more of your pious advice.

Little by little I arranged a god, one privileged enough to be called a god, and at the same time distant enough that I didn't have to deal with him. I made him confusing enough to allow me to transform him, at will and without need to change religions, into a pantheistic god, or even to permit me to become a proud Deist.

This "god" had neither a heaven to console me nor a hell to frighten me. I left him in peace. This is what my adoration of him consisted of. One easily believes in what one loves. With the passing of years, I became sufficiently convinced of my religion. I lived at ease with it, without its causing me any inconvenience.

Only one thing would have been able to bring me to my senses: a profound and prolonged suffering. But this suffering never came. Do you now understand that saying, "Whom God loves, He chastises"?

One summer day in July the sodality of young women organized an outing. Yes, I liked those outings, but not the pious beatas who went on them! I had recently placed an image very different from the one of Our Lady of Grace on the altar of my heart. It was that fine manly figure of Max N. from the nearby office. We had already conversed several times. On this occasion, he invited me out on the same Sunday that the sodality outing was planned. Another woman whom he had been dating was in the hospital.

He had noticed, of course, that I had my eyes on him, but I had never thought of marrying him. He was wealthy, but too friendly with all the young ladies, in my opinion. Up until then I had wanted a man who would belong exclusively to me, and I would be his alone. Thus, I had always kept a certain distance between us.


(This is true. There was something noble about Anne, notwithstanding her religious indifference. It astonishes me that "sincere" persons like her can also fall into Hell if they are insincere enough to flee from facing God.)


Max began to shower me with attentions from the day of that outing. Our conversation, of course, was certainly different from that of your pious women. The next day in the office, you reprimanded me for not having gone with you. I then told you about my Sunday diversion.

Your first question was: "Did you go to Mass?" How ridiculous! How could I have gone to Mass when we had agreed to leave at six in the morning? Do you remember that I heatedly added, "The good God is not so mean-spirited as your little priests!" Now I am forced to confess to you that, His infinite goodness notwithstanding, God takes everything much more seriously than any priest.

After this first outing with Max, I only attended one more of your sodality meetings. I was attracted to some of the Christmas solemnities, but I had already dissociated myself from you interiorly. What interested me were movies, dances, and excursions. At times Max and I argued, but I knew how to keep him interested in me.

After being released from the hospital, my rival was furious with me, and I found her quite disagreeable. Her anger worked in my favor, though, for my discreet calm impressed Max and ultimately led him to choose me over her. I knew just how to belittle her. I would speak calmly, seeming to be entirely objective, but spewing venom from within. Insinuations and actions like this can rapidly lead one to Hell. They are diabolical, in the true sense of the word.

Why am I telling you this? To show you how I came to separate myself definitively from God. To remove myself so far, it was not even necessary to be entirely familiar with Max. I knew that if I lowered myself to that too soon, he would think less of me. So I restrained myself and refused. In truth, I was ready to do anything I thought useful to reach my aim. I would stop at nothing to win Max.

Gradually we fell in love, for both of us possessed certain admirable qualities that we could mutually appreciate. I was talented and had become a good conversationalist, so I eventually had Max in my hands, secure that he belonged only to me, at least in those last months before our wedding.

This is what constituted my apostasy from God: making a mere creature into my god. The way this can be more fully realized is between two persons of opposite sex, if they have only a material love. For this becomes the allure, the sting, and the venom. The "adoration" I rendered to Max became an ardent religion for me.

At this stage of my life I would still at times hypocritically run off during the office lunch hour to go to church, to listen to the silly priests, to say the Rosary, and other such foolishness.

You strove, with more or less intelligence, to encourage such practices, but apparently without suspecting that, in final analysis, I no longer believed in any of these things. I only sought to set my conscience at ease - I still needed that - in order to justify my apostasy. In the depth of my soul I lived in revolt against God. You did not perceive that. You always thought I was still Catholic. I wanted to be seen as such, and I even went so far as to make contributions to the church, thinking that a little "insurance" couldn't hurt me.

As sure as you were with your answers, they always bounced off me. I was sure that you could not be right. This strained our relationship, and when my marriage put some distance between us, the pain of our separation was slight. Before my wedding, I went to Confession and Holy Communion one more time, but it was a mere formality. My husband thought the same as I. We carried out that formality just like any other. You would call that "unworthy." But after that "unworthy" Communion I had greater peace of mind. It was the last one of my life.

Our married life was generally harmonious. We shared the same opinion on just about everything. That included our opinion regarding children: We didn't want the burden. Deep down, my husband wanted one child, but naturally no more. I was able to remove even this notion from his head. I preferred fine clothing and furniture, tea with the ladies, automobile excursions, and other such amusements. And so a year of earthly pleasure passed from our wedding day until my sudden death.

Any attachment to religion I might have had was almost gone, like the last glimmer of light on the far horizon. The bars and cafes of the city and the restaurants where we ate on our travels did not draw us any closer to God. Everyone who frequented them lived as we did, concerned about externals, and not matters of the soul.

Once in our travels we visited a famous cathedral, but just to appreciate the artistic value of its masterpieces. I knew how to neutralize the religious air of the Middle Ages that it radiated, and I seized every opportunity for ridicule. I made fun of the lay brother who served as our guide; I criticized the pious monks for their business of making and selling liqueur; I disparaged the eternal pealing of the bells calling the people to the churches as solicitations only for money. Thus I rejected every grace that came knocking at my door.

In particular, I let my sarcasm flow profusely at every depiction of Hell in the books, the cemeteries, and other places, where one could find devils roasting souls in red or yellow fires while their long-tailed associates kept arriving with more victims.

Hell might be poorly drawn, Claire, but it can never be exaggerated.

Above all, I always scoffed at the fire of Hell. Do you recall our conversation about the fire of Hell when I jokingly put a lit match under your nose and asked, "Does it smell like this?" You quickly blew out the match, but here no one extinguishes the fire. Let me tell you something else - the fire that the Bible speaks about is not just the torment of conscience. Fire means fire. That is just what He meant when he said, "Depart from Me, ye accursed, into the everlasting fire." Quite literally.

"How can the spirit be affected by material fire?" you ask.

How, then, can your soul suffer on earth when you put your finger in the fire? Your soul itself does not burn, but what the man as a whole suffers!

In like manner, here we are imprisoned in a fire in our being and our faculties. Our souls are deprived of their natural movements. We can neither think nor want what we used to desire. Do not even try to comprehend a mystery that goes against the laws of material nature: the fire of Hell burns without consuming.

Our greatest torment consists in knowing with certainty that we will never see God. How greatly we are tortured by that which we were indifferent to while on earth! When the knife lies on the table, it leaves you cold. You see its sharp edge, but you don't feel it. But the moment it enters your flesh, you scream with pain. Before, we only saw the loss of God; now we feel it.

(St. Augustine said, "The separation from God is a torment as great as God." Cf. Houdry, Bibliotheca concionatorum (Venice, 1786), vol 2, "Infernus," No. 4, p. 427)

All the souls do not suffer equally. The more frivolous, malicious, and resolute one was in sin, the more the loss of God weighs upon the soul and the more tortured he feels for the abused creature.

Catholics who are damned suffer more than those of other beliefs because, in general, they received more lights and graces without taking advantage of them. The ones who knew more suffer more than those who had less knowledge. Those who sinned out of malice suffer more than those who fell from weakness. No one, however, suffers more than he deserves. Would that this were not true, so that I might have more reason to hate!

You once told me that no one goes to Hell without knowing it. This was revealed to some saint. I laughed at that, but the thought was entrenched in my mind. If this were the case, then there would be enough time for me to convert - that is how I thought in my heart.

What you said was true. Before my sudden end, I had no idea of what Hell really is. No human being does. But I had no doubt about this: should I die, I would enter into eternity in a state of revolt against God, and I would suffer the consequences. As I already have told you, I did not change my course but continued along the same path, impelled by habit, just as people act with greater deliberation and regularity as they grow older.

Now, I will tell you how my death occurred.

One week ago - I speak to you in the terms by which you measure time, for judging by the pain I have endured, I could already have been burning in Hell for ten years. Therefore, on a Sunday one week ago, my husband and I went for a drive. It was the last one for me.

The day was radiant and beautiful. I felt well and at ease, as I rarely did. An ominous presentiment, however, came over me as we drove. On the way home that evening my husband and I were unexpectedly blinded by the lights of a car rapidly approaching from the opposite direction. My husband lost control of our car.

"Jesus!" I shouted, not as a prayer, but as a scream. I felt a crushing pain - a trifle in comparison with my present torment. Then I lost consciousness. How strange! On that very morning, the idea had come to me unexpectedly that I could, after all, go to Mass again. It entered my mind almost like a supplication. My "No!" - strong and determined - nipped the thought in the bud. I must finish with this once and for all, I thought, and I assumed all the consequences. And now I endure them.

You know what happened after my death. The grief of my husband and my mother, my body laid out and the burial. You know all this down to the last detail, as do I through a natural intuition we have here. We have only a confused knowledge of what transpires in the world, but we know something of what concerned us. Thus I know also your whereabouts.

(S. Th. Suppl., Q. 98, a 7,: "Accordingly, in the damned there will be actual consideration of the things they knew heretofore as matters of sorrow, but not as a cause of pleasure.")

At the moment of my death I awoke from a darkness. I found myself suddenly enveloped by a blinding light. It was at the same place where my body lay. It seemed almost like a theater, when the lights suddenly go out, the curtain noisily opens, and a tragically illuminated scene appears: the scene of my life.

I saw my soul as in a mirror. I saw the graces I had trampled underfoot from the time I was young until that final "No!" given to God. I felt like an assassin brought to trial before its inanimate victim. Repent? Never! Did I feel shame for my actions? Not at all!

(Ibid., Q. 98, a. 2, r.: "Accordingly the wicked will not repent of their sins directly, that is, out of hatred of sin, because consent in the malice of sin will remain in them; but they will repent indirectly, inasmuch as they will suffer from the punishment inflicted on them for sin.")

Notwithstanding, it was impossible for me to remain in the presence of the God I had denied and rejected. Only one thing remained for me: flight. Thus, just as Cain fled from the body of Abel, so my soul sought to flee far from this terrible sight.

That was my private judgment. The invisible Judge spoke: "Depart from Me!" and my soul swiftly fell, like a sulfurous shadow, into the place of eternal torment!

The aim of this warning finds expression in these words, "Let us think of Hell while we are still living, so that we will not fall into it after we die." This counsel is but the paraphrasing of Psalm 54: "Descendat in infernum viventes, videlicet, ne descendant morientes," which is found in a statement erroneously, attributed to St. Bernard (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. 184, Col. 314 b).

Karl wrote:

If you are a Roman Catholic, you know that your religion was founded in the year 33 A.D by Jesus Christ, Son of The Living God. The Roman Catholic Church has not changed since that time.

What about "Memory and reconciliation: The church and faults of the past"? SOMETHING must have changed.

Karl wrote:

Here, word for word, is the Letter from Beyond written by the deceased Anne.

For shame. Karl! According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm readings, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (No.2116)

Those who hate the Catholic Church like to accuse Her of all sorts of things. They are quick to mention the Inquisition, imaginary persecution of non-catholics, complicity in Nazi war crimes, and everything in between.

Above all, the Inquisition is the most misunderstood term, of which haters of the Church that Jesus Christ founded love to bring up all the time. It would be better if these detractors would first check their facts, and get them straight.

The Inquisition was convened to combat Protestant heretics soon after the start of the reformation. We all know the story of the censure of Galileo from this Inquisition in 1616. Just because Pope John Paul II declared Galileo's censure, and therefore his persecution by Inquisition, to be in error, and apologized for the part the Church played in it, does not at all mean that The Church has changed.

When is all said and done, fact still remains that the Catholic is the one and only true Church founded by the Son of God Himself. All admit this, and history clearly proves this fact. And the blood of the countless Martyrs attests to this.

Before needling Catholics over this subject, look in your own backyard. The Protestant history of persecutions, especially of Catholics, is not pretty. The Catholic Church had good reasons for the Inquisitions. On there other hand, there seems to be no valid reasons for Protestant persecution of Catholics except for their desire to totally annihilate them. Here are a few examples...

King Henry VIII is responsible for the deaths of over 70,000 Catholics including hundreds of priests and Bishops. He had St. Thomas More executed in 1535. He even ordered the destruction of most of the uncorrupted bodies of saints in England. The only bodies that were not destroyed are the ones taken by Catholics and hidden from the persecutors.

John Calvin, one of the Protestant reformers, viciously persecuted Catholics as heretics. He persecuted others as well, and had a rival critic, Michael Servetus, burned alive in October 1553, as he sat by an open window in order to enjoy the screams of the poor dying man as he was slowly roasted. What demonic sadism!

Queen Elizabeth I, had thousands of Catholics put to death in England. She ordered that Catholic Mary Queen of Scots be executed in 1587. She had thousands more killed in Ireland.

Oliver Cromwell is responsible for starting the English civil war and the subsequent beheading of Catholic King Charles I, and for the killing of thousands of Catholics in that war of 1642-1649.

Thousands of Catholics were murdered in Ireland by the English in the 19th century simply because they attended the Catholic Mass. The Protestant English redcoats were also responsible for confiscating the food from the Irish people and for leaving them only with potatoes which were blighted and unfit to eat. In the mid 19th century this caused the deaths by starvation of an estimated 1-1.5 million Irish Catholics, and the emigration of about 2 million more. It was a case of either leave the country or die of starvation.

How many thousands of women were burned at the stake after witch trials, by Protestant witch hunters, over several centuries, and throughout Europe and America? It is estimated that 30,000 went to their deaths in Britain alone, and another 100,000 in Protestant Germany. Interestingly, the Protestant mind-set in those times was that if the woman survived the burning, she was considered not to be a witch. Now just how many innocent women, do you think, survived this horror?

The Catholic Church apologized for the injustice done to Galileo. There is no single Protestant apology for any of the injustices perpetrated against Catholics. The Catholic Church does not persecute Protestants, however, Protestants continue to persecute Catholics, as evidenced recently by Britain's refusal to allow Catholics to ascend to the Monarchy. Protestant bigotry has lasted much longer than Catholic persecution has.

TruthIsScary wrote:

Karl wrote: Here, word for word, is the Letter from Beyond written by the deceased Anne. For shame. Karl! According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm readings, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (No.2116)

In the parable of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man, did not the rich man beseech Abraham to send someone to warn his relatives so that they may not suffer the same fate that befell him? Abraham's response: "......neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead. "

It is hardly surprising then that, instead of investigating the veracity of this letter, the first thing you do is accuse the messenger of divination.

There is absolutely nothing in that letter that contradicts Scripture. On the contrary it is wholly consistent with the teachings of Christ, and the admonition of Church Fathers concerning what awaits he who is not mindful of his own salvation.

In Holy Scripture, there are many instances of God warning mankind, through dreams by prophets and other holy men. In the old testament, God warned Joseph, in a dream, of a looming famine, during his stint as Pharaoh's right hand man in Egypt. In the new testament, God warned, in a dream, the three Kings who came to adore the Child Jesus, not to report back to Herod about its whereabouts. Did not an Angel, in a dream, warn Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, to flee to Egypt with the Child Jesus when Herod went on rampage slaughtering all children up to two years old.

Very often God also uses ordinary human beings, more so in the case of this modern and obstinate world that refuses to heed warnings from Heaven. God, in His infinite Love, has even resorted to using the very inhabitants of Hell in order to warn the impious and pleasure-seeking world of today.

Hopefully, whoever reads the letter will seriously contemplate the awful truth that each and every human being must face on departing this life. These are the last four things namely, death, judgment, heaven and hell.

You and me have had the immense fortune of coming across this letter. So we stand warned. And as the wise man says, "forewarned is forearmed". What happened to Anne should not happen to anyone who has read this terrifying letter. Having been exposed to this information we are out of any and all excuses. For, unlike the heathen, we will never be able to plead inculpable ignorance because the Divine Judge will not listen. And rightly so because the time for mercy will be long gone. Strict and rigorous Justice will be the order of the day. And what a long day it will be.

Karl wrote:

Very often God also uses ordinary human beings, more so in the case of this modern and obstinate world that refuses to heed warnings from Heaven. God, in His infinite Love, has even resorted to using the very inhabitants of Hell in order to warn the impious and pleasure-seeking world of today.

You and your church contradict yourselves constantly. A warning to not seek advice from the supernatural is thrown aside when the church has a supernatural letter to offer. I'm sure that you'd be more than willing to hide behind that catechism reference if I were to tell you what a deceased person revealed to me.

Even worse is the twisted nature of your thinking. To use the terms "infinite Love" and "residents of Hell" like you do shows that you have no idea what you're talking about.

The Catholic catechism is just as bad with its use of the term "loving fear". Fear and love are opposites. "Loving fear" is an oxymoron, an impossible condition.

You seem to have a hard time reasoning. It is not the Church that offered this letter.

Karl wrote:

You seem to have a hard time reasoning. It is not the Church that offered this letter.

Ah, so it is you that throws aside your own church's catechism when you deem it convenient. So why, then, do you argue so fervently in favor of the church?

You don't live by its rules, so how can you convince others to do so?

You don't understand the true meaning of the terms you use, so how can you convey a meaning to anyone else?

TruthIsScary wrote:

Karl wrote: You seem to have a hard time reasoning. It is not the Church that offered this letter. Ah, so it is you that throws aside your own church's catechism when you deem it convenient. So why, then, do you argue so fervently in favor of the church? You don't live by its rules, so how can you convince others to do so? You don't understand the true meaning of the terms you use, so how can you convey a meaning to anyone else?

So, you are the one who understands "the true meaning" of anything huh?

How is it, then, that you do not seem to understand the simple fact that the KJV, your purported guide to salvation, was authored on the authority of a sodomite king?

How is it that you do not seem to understand, when your very own protestant theologians warn of the errors in the KJV and the fact that on account of the magnitude of corruption in this book, countless souls are destined for hell?

You trumpet your reasoning prowess yet you fail to understand simple facts. How, then, dare you claim to know anything about the Catholic Catechism?

You do not understand anything at all do you? It would be laughable to claim otherwise.

This would be very funny Karl if it wasnt so sad.
The Catholic scare letter from hell! Wow! What Catholic genuis thought that one up.
Scripture tell us that the dead are dead. Period. They cant hear or talk.
Ecc. 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Psalms 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence

Note the word silence Karl.

Anyone who believes that a dead person can go to hell and write a letter needs serious prayer.

Bella,

So, you are a person who believes that the "bible alone" suffices as the rule of faith huh. Well, If i am to ever engage in a sensible discussion with you, it will be only after you give me reasonable answers to the following questions. This is my challenge to you. Otherwise it is turning out to be a pointless exercise to engage in anything with you.

Give me intelligent answers to the following questions:

1. How could this "bible alone" belief have possibly existed before the invention of the printing press in 1450?

2. Where did Bibles come from before 1450 when the printing press was invented?
a. How much did they cost?
b. How many people had them?
c. How many people were literate enough to read one?
d. What Bibles did the masses have in order to make "scripture alone" work in 200 A.D ? 500? 700? 1000? 1200?

3. If you lived in the year 1300, to which Church would you go in order to satisfy the teaching of Jesus Christ in Matt 18:17?

4. Why do you stick to the KJV in spite of the fact that it was authored at the behest of a homosexual King?

5. Why do you stick to the KJV, a protestant book, yet protestant theologians say the errors in that book are sufficient to lead souls to hell?

Show me your God-given reasoning abilities lest I be compelled to conclude that you, too, are incapable of exercising your God-given faculties, for your own benefit.

And you call that letter "the Catholic scare letter" from hell huh? Well, go ahead and amuse yourself. Have fun, as you always do, scoffing at, and mocking anything and everything Catholic.

Rest assured, though, that it will be a completely different situation on your deathbed. For you will wish that you had taken matters very, very seriously.

Well, If i am to ever engage in a sensible discussion with you................
Karl,you believe dead people can write scary letters from hell and you want ME to be sensible??? Oh the irony of it all!!!!!
I answered your questions before ,remember posting them?? You dont bother reading much do you?

Karl, why do you stick to the teachings of a bunch of murdering, child molesting, antichrist priests???

bella wrote:

Karl, why do you stick to the teachings of a bunch of murdering, child molesting, antichrist priests???

As always, you got it wrong.
We adhere to, and follow the doctrines and teachings of an Institution, the Catholic Church, the one and only true Church established by God Himself.

Moreover, if we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ, which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church, there is nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression "the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ", an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the holy Fathers.

Karl, how can you deny its history? It being the catholic church. Jesus in no way comissioned that church.