World Mercy Congress 'Catches Fire'

ROME, April 5, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Is hell the weigh station to heaven?

In a stunning ecumenical moment at the Catholic Church's first-ever World Congress on Divine Mercy, Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion Alfeye, bishop of Vienna and Austria, told a rapt audience of 8,000 that God's love places no limit on his mercy toward humanity, even to the point of imposing a temporal limit on hell.

Quoting St. Isaac the Syrian, a 7th-century holy man revered in Russian Orthodoxy as "famous among saints," Bishop Hilarion noted that "God does nothing out of retribution. Even to think that way about God would be blasphemous. Even worse is the opinion that God allows people to lead a sinful life on earth in order to punish them eternally after death. This is a blasphemous and perverted understanding of God, a calumny of God."

That teaching runs counter to Catholicism's view of hell as a destination of permanent damnation. And yet the "radically beautiful" teaching, as one delegate put it, was not only allowed by congressional organizers working in the name of Pope Benedict XVI, it was invited.

Bishop Hilarian was speaking at invitation from the World Mercy Congress international executive team, headed by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Austria, a man seen by many Vatican watcher as a potential successor to Pope Benedict.

The bishop said that Divine Mercy shows "God's full love," and for that reason, St. Isaac was "quite resentful of the widespread opinion that the majority of people will be punished in hell, and only a small group of the chosen will delight in Paradise. He is convinced," the Bishop added, "that, quite to the contrary, the majority of people will find themselves in the Kingdom of heaven, and only a few sinners will go to Gehenna [hell], and even they only for the period of time which is necessary for their repentance and remission of sins."

Bishop Hilarion said that what is traditionally thought of as "hell" is actually closer to Catholicism's teaching of purgatory: a place of temporal punishment for the remission of sin. A soul in purgatory is guaranteed of going to heaven.

Many observers were encouraged that the Vatican would include this teaching as part of the congress, seeing in it a hopeful sign of rapprochement between East and West. As one delegate put it, the congress, having the courage the invite Bishop Hilarion, had "caught fire."

Thus the World Congress on Divine Mercy found its electric moment. Bishop Hilarion's remarks were enthusiastically applauded, and after the talk, an excited crowd of well-wishers stepped forward to thank him for his words. Bishop Hilarion exchanged warm words with Cardinal Schonborn. Cardinal Schonborn thanked Bishop Hilarion for his teaching, and the two men talked for several minutes, warmly shaking hands. Schonborn is acting on Pope Benedict's behalf in moderating the plenary sessions of the Congress.

Benedict opened the congress on Wednesday, April 2, with a Mass in St. Peter's Square on the 3rd anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II.

The congress' plenary session are being held in St. John Lateran Basilica, the cathedral of the Pope in his role as Bishop of Rome. The Congress concludes Sunday, April 6 in St. Peter's Square.

Dan Valenti is senior writer/editor and columnist for the Association of Marian Helpers, for whom he is covering the congress. Full coverage of the Congress is available at www.mercycongress.org