Do you believe in Hell?

[ab_initio]

Do people who kill themselves go straight to hell or purgatory? I remember when I was little we went to the wake of a distant relative who killed himself and he wasn't blessed by the church.

in one retreat i have attended, our retreat master said that there are actually two schools of thought about suicide. the Church doesn't look upon it with favor, so the one committing suicide, won't be blessed. on the other hand, the Church is faced with one more compelling reason of blessing the dead, because when the person committed suicide, he wasn't in his right mind, so there was no freedom when he chose to commit suicide. in some parishes, they allow the dead to be brought inside the Church, with a different ceremony though.

given those, i believe that the concept of hell is not really an unequivocal dogma of the Church. well, maybe because the Church assumes a greater responsibility of nourishing our souls and in that case, there's a tacit recognition that somehow, the Church failed to reach out to him when he was in darkness...then there is the concept of purgatory, which is always, abused by the faithful.

i heard that there is this move in the Vatican to abolish the concept of purgatory. what we have now is purgatory...everyday is a chance to redeem ourselves or correct our past misdeeds. i like the concept of the buddhist though of life after death...no chance, maging ipis ka or whatever after death pag bad ka...gaya ng mga gluttons diyan, maging baboy na lilitsonin pagkatapos mamatay.