Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
38  Msg No: 154.  Fri 10-11-91 16:45
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Richard Hamilton
 Subject: Particular Judgment

> I just remembered one of those questions that I keep forgetting to
> ask so here it is.  After death, do we go directly to Heaven or
> wait until Judgement Day?
 
Dear Richard,
 
In Ludwig Ott, *Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma*, we read:
"Immediately after death the particular judgment takes place, in
which, by a Divine Sentence of Judgment, the eternal fate of the
deceased person is decided" (p. 475).
 
This doctrine is "proximate to the Faith, regarded by theologians
generally as a truth of revelation, but not yet finally promulgated
as such by the Church" (p.9).
 
"The Union Councils of Lyons and of Florence declared that the souls
of the just, free from all sin and punishment, are immediately
assumed into Heaven, and that the souls of those who die in mortal
sin or merely in original sin descend immediately into hell" (p.
475).
 
The Church was a long time in coming to clarity on this doctrine.  At
the present time it is beyond question by reason of the teaching of
Popes and Councils, the testimony of the liturgy, and the general
consensus of Catholic believers.
 
                                    Sincerely in Christ,
                                    Father Mateo