This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts,

videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com.

Hi, I'm Edwards 3 and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

Today we're going to be going to be a real life. Today we're going to talk about hell.

Does the Catholic Church still teach about hell?

Do people really go to hell?

Does God really send people to hell?

I mean, let's just think about this for a moment.

If God is loving and kind and merciful,

he's so gentle and patient, so quick to forgive. Indeed, if God is love, that's what the Bible says, God is love, then why would he allow anybody to go to hell? If he's so kind and loving, doesn't he want to be at one with us? Why would he permit anyone to go to hell? Well, there's a lot of questions people may have about the teaching on hell that you find in scripture and in the catechism. And there's a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. I want to bring some clarification. We're going to take a look this week at what the Catholic Church really teaches about hell and why. So welcome to the All Things Catholic podcast. I'm your host, Edward Sari, and this question about

hell is just one of the many questions we take a look at in this new program we have at

Ascension Press called Foundations of Faith, a Journey Through the Catechism. I meet Catholics all

the time that have so many questions. I mean, they grew up Catholic, or maybe they were a recent

convert or they came back to the church. But even if they grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, we didn't always get the best catechesis. We didn't get the best formation. So we may not know, well, why does the Catholic Church teach us about hell or purgatory or what is heaven or maybe those moral teachings? Do you ever wonder, do you ever find yourself, you know, talking to a friend at the office, a friend at work, or your neighbor and maybe a relative?

And they wonder, why does a Catholic church teach this about marriage?

Shouldn't we just be kind and loving and let people live as they live?

Why does it have to talk about sexuality or why does it talk about abortion?

And do you ever feel a little uncomfortable and uncertain what to say? Maybe you have

children and friends that have questions about why the Catholic Church teaches these moral teachings,

or why does a church require sacraments? Why do you have to go through all these rituals? And

maybe you feel a little uncertain. You're not sure what to say. Or you really believe the Bible's

inspired by God? I mean, really? Isn't that like fairy tales? You know, like, oh, God's whispering

...