Q. I have always thought that Judas was in Hell, but now I read that Pope Francis has said that we don’t know if Judas is in Hell. What are we to believe? — F.A., via e-mail.
A. First of all, while we know that there are persons in Hell (the Blessed Mother showed the children at Fatima a horrifying picture of Hell “with demons and souls in human form…floating about in the conflagration . . . amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair,” recalled Lucia), we don’t know for certain the name of anyone in Hell. In a homily given during Holy Week of 2021, Pope Francis asked, “How did Judas end up? I don’t know.” He said that “Christ never calls Judas a ‘traitor’ personally. Rather, Jesus calls him ‘friend’ and kisses him.”
But many saints have expressed certainty that Judas is in Hell, and Avery Cardinal Dulles, in an article entitled “The Population of Hell,” sums up the fate of Judas:
“The New Testament does not tell us in so many words that any particular person is in Hell. But several statements about Judas can hardly be interpreted otherwise. Jesus says that He has kept all those whom the Father has given Him, except the son of perdition (John 17:12). At another point, Jesus calls Judas a devil (John 6:70), and yet again says of him: ‘It would be better for that man if he had never been born’ (Matt. 26:24, Mark 14:21).”
Cardinal Dulles went on to say that “if Judas were among the saved, these statements could hardly be true. Many saints and doctors of the Church, including St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, have taken it as a revealed truth that Judas was reprobated. Some of the Fathers place the name of Nero in the same select company, but they do not give a long list of names, as Dante would do” in The Inferno.
Q. I have noticed that during the “Collect” prayer at Mass the word “one” is no longer being said, as in “who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.” Why the change? — J.G., Arizona.
A. The change, which took effect in the United States on Ash Wednesday of this year, was prompted by a letter sent to English-speaking episcopal conferences in May 2020 by Robert Cardinal Sarah, then the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. The reason for the change, said Cardinal Sarah, was because “there is no mention of ‘one’ in the Latin [Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum], and ‘Deus’ in the Latin refers to Christ.”
The English and Welsh bishops’ conference explained that “the addition of ‘one’ before ‘God’ in the conclusion of the Collects could be construed as mistaken and problematic. ‘Deus’ here refers to the earlier mention of ‘the Son’ and is a Christological, anti-Arian affirmation, and not directly Trinitarian in this context.” They said that the addition of “one” before God “could serve to undermine the statement of the unique dignity of the Son within the Trinity” or “could be interpreted as saying that Jesus is ‘one God.’ Either or both of these interpretations is injurious to the faith of the Church.”
Q. I am reluctant to take the COVID vaccine right now because of the possibility that research for the vaccine utilized aborted baby parts. Is there a vaccine available that does not use aborted baby tissue? — J.H., via e-mail.
A. In a column some months ago, we said that none of the vaccines was completely free from morally compromised cell lines from aborted babies, but that the U.S. Bishops had said that “in view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” the reasons to use one of them “are sufficiently serious to justify their use, despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines. In addition, receiving the COVID-19 vaccine ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community. In this way, being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.”
Not all bishops agree. For instance, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who acknowledges that “I’m in the minority” on the matter, has urged rejection of “any vaccine that uses the remains of aborted children in research, testing, development, or production.”
Can a Catholic refuse to take the vaccine? Yes, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in December 2020. It said that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health, but also the duty to pursue the common good.” Therefore, said the CDF, those who refuse to get vaccinated must take all necessary precautions to avoid “becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical and other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable.”
In summary, says the National Catholic Bioethics Center, “if a Catholic comes to an informed and sure judgment in conscience that he or she should not receive a vaccine, then the Catholic Church requires that the person follow this certain judgment of conscience and refuse the vaccine. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear: ‘Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters’” (n. 1782).
Forming one’s conscience also ought to take into account the thousands of people who have died after taking the vaccine, and the hundreds of thousands of others who have suffered serious side effects. These statistics are documented by VAERS, the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. Also puzzling are new mask mandates, even for the vaccinated. Weren’t we told that the vaccinated would be protected from the virus and would not need to wear masks?
Q. In the Acts of the Apostles (17:24-25), St. Paul says to the people in Athens, “The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.” Does this not contradict Catholic teaching that God dwells in the tabernacle in the sanctuaries of our churches? We have Perpetual Adoration in many of our churches for the purpose of adoring God, whom we believe dwells in the monstrance and tabernacle. Please explain this apparent discrepancy. — M.M., Oregon.
A. In his speech at the Areopagus, Paul said that “as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.” Paul knew that the Greeks venerated a large number of gods, and that they had built many shrines to unknown gods to ensure that no deity was neglected, that all were properly honored. But he said that unlike these lifeless, unknown gods, he knew of a living Creator who does not live in man-made shrines or statues, but who indeed “is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27).
Paul’s remarks were aimed at turning the people of Athens away from their Greek idols to the God in whom “we live and move and have our being” (17:28). He was not contradicting our practice of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. We are not worshiping false gods, but rather the one, true God for whom we have built cathedrals and tabernacles to allow Him to dwell in our midst.
Q. I have been in churches where the priest or a layperson invites the congregation at the beginning of Mass to “greet one another as you would family and friends.” Isn’t this adding something to the liturgy that doesn’t belong? — M.S., Michigan.
A. Yes, it is, and it’s another example of directing the focus at Mass away from God and toward our fellow parishioners. There is a time at Mass for such an exchange, at the Sign of Peace, and other efforts to do so should be avoided.
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