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

The News You May Have Missed

Thy Rods of Iron, They Comfort Me... Got It Bad, I've Been Shot by Teacher... Driverless Crime... Cold Contempt... Gym Jesus... Wal-Marriage... The Sexual Revolution at Disney... and more

The Pope Confounds the Neoconservatives

Review of Aspiring to Freedom: Commen­taries on John Paul II's Encycli­cal "The Social Concerns of the Church"

New Oxford Notes: October 2007

Divisive or Diversity... Does He Know the Mind of Satan... The U.S. Catholic Church Is Sinking Fast -- Part II... Western Christian & Muslim Societies on Morality... Delusions of Grandeur... 'I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It'... Integrity or a Lie?...