Expert: Fr. Timothy Johnson - 3/1/2011

Question
Hello and thank you in advance. I recently lost my 19 yr old granddaughter in a car accident. She was a wonderful and sweet gril who loved everyone and wanted peace on Earth. But the last 2 years of her life were filled with addictions due to a mental illness that came after high school graduation. My question is this....I know she had sins when she died, and she had even had an abortion. But can she be held responsible when she did not know the consequences of her actions nor the mental faculties to fully understand what she was doing under the influence of drugs/alcohol and bipolar disorder?  I know that the Church teaches that in order for a sin to be a "mortal sin" deserving of hell, that 3 conditions have to be met one of them being that the person had to know that it was a mortal sin. My granddaughter was baptized a Catholic as were her parents but was not brought up in the Catholic Church and did not study the Bible. I honestly believe that if she knew the consequences of an abortion that she would not have had one. I also cannot believe that God would send her to hell to suffer more after suffering so badly here on Earth the last 2 years of her life. Please help me understand this because I am feeling such despair and agony that my baby might suffer for the rest of her life in hell.

Answer
Hi, Maureen:

What a sad and tragic situation.  I am so sorry for you to have gone through the death of a granddaughter.  Your analysis of the situation was pretty thorough and complete, and it seems as though you are working through the steps as necessary to deal with your grief.
There is not a lot I can say by words to heal your soul and inner sense of loss and mourning, or your caring concern for her eternal salvation: I pray, too, + May she rest in peace through the mercy of God.  As it is, only God truly and ultimately knows the exact state of soul of individuals after the course of the life of this world and beyond the grave.
Of your analysis about the only thing I would venture to "correct" on account of what you stated was that God would (or wouldn't, I presume) "send" anybody to hell... Each of us must exercise free will and choose or reject God by divine faith (or lack thereof) and strive for continual conversion of life by penance.  I wish, along with anybody of good will, that there could exist more "certainty" regarding your granddaugther's eternal fate; but life is not always so easy, cut-and-dried.  You and your children (along with all people of good will) have before you an opportunity for greater growth in your relationships with God through more ongoing charity (Divine Love) and conversion of heart.  I as a simple Priest and instrument of God's Grace through the Sacred Ministry cannot judge the particulars of your granddaughter's state-of-soul for good or for bad.  I do not have the Authority by my Office as Priest to canonize anybody; but by the same two-edged sword of Truth, I do not have the Authority to condemn any particular state known ultimately to God alone as to eternal perdition.
I am saddened by the weight of the burden that the lie of satan caught her in the snare of feeling so desperate at one point in her life that she chose (or more probably felt coerced into) an abortion.  God can forgive ANY sin, if only we recognize it and repent, and allow His love and grace to heal us.  We don't know what kind of repentance your granddaughter may have come to (however imperfect it may have been) in her life before her death.
But we who remain?  Jesus Christ is still here, right here, right now FOR US; and His Holy Church is still here as His Gift to us through her Sacred ministry.  St. Paul tells us by encouragement and exhortation: NOW is the time, NOW is the day of salvation.  How will respond?  How will we enter into the Mystery and sieze the DAY?
God bless you!

Fr. Timothy Johnson