If you’re living with a greater-than-normal fear of damnation, a priest suggests maybe you should relax:

Generally, people who live in terror about going to Hell are the last people who should worry about doing so. Even so, the Catholic Catechism gives us a measure:

“God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want ‘any to perish, but all to come to repentance'” (CCC 1037)

One must commit a serious sin and persist in it until death. Therefore, the concept of accidentally committing such a sin is just not possible. This act must be committed with full knowledge and consent of the will. It is done in a purposeful way that cannot be mistaken for an accident. People who maintain this choice are not hard to miss.

Well, I feel better, don’t you? For more, check out the rest of the essay, which quotes, among others, Pope Benedict and the “Star Wars” series. Really.

Image: Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180)