Volume > Issue > You Make the Call

You Make the Call

EDITORIAL

By Dale Vree | May 2001

Many of you have asked if Fr. Richard John Neuhaus has responded to my January article. Well, he finally has. But first some background.

In “The Public Square” section of First Things (June/July 2000), Fr. Neuhaus expressed his dismay at an article in the NEW OXFORD REVIEW by Fr. Regis Scanlon on Hell. In the process, Neuhaus noted that he had just written a book on that subject, Death on a Friday Afternoon. I, as Editor of the NOR, took that as a nudge, and read the book.

Upon reading it, I was appalled, for it was riddled with statements supporting universal salvation (the notion that everyone goes to Heaven). While there was some hedging on the subject, especially early on, the thrust of the book was clearly to support universal salvation.

Actually, I was horrified, for a belief in universal salvation (or even a studied silence about Hell from the pulpit, which is what so many laity complain about) is at the root of much of the doctrinal indifference, liturgical weirdness, and flagrant immorality found in the Church today.

Enjoyed reading this?

READ MORE! REGISTER TODAY

SUBSCRIBE

You May Also Enjoy

Catholic Dreamers’ Failed Dialogue with Islam

Interreligious talks have proven fruitless, and our own theologians have not told us even the minimum of truth about Islam.

The News You May Have Missed: December 2024

Victim or the Crime?... Under the Golden Arches... Banking to Death... Be Brief, Be Gone... Heritage Hunters... Old Mintage from the New World... and more

The Cloning of Margaret Fanger

This fictional piece uses exact quotes of the real-life Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.