Dear Christina:

Where did you get the idea that the Church says there are no souls in hell? That is absolutely incorrect. Jesus said:

(Matthew 7:13-14)  “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy,[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

We do not, however, know who is in hell. God does not give the Church that information. The Holy Spirit does inform the Holy See who He wants to be canonized as Saints, which means the person is definitively in heaven, but the Holy Spirit does not reveal who is in hell.

Therefore, we can never say someone is going to hell, because we do not know that. We can say that someone is on the road to hell, or that their soul is in danger of hell, but we can never say someone is going to hell because we do no know their heart and we especially do not know their heart at the moment of there death.

I know of a Satanist who lived his whole life in evil, including raping his daughters when they were four years old. Literally one minute before his death he repented. The only reason anyone knows this is that his daughters were in the hospital room at the time and witnessed their father's repentance. Hopefully, his repentance was genuine, but we cannot be sure because only God knows the man's heart.

We cannot judge on what we do not know, and we cannot know anyone's heart, so the Church does not make that judgement. But, we do know that people are in hell because the Bible tells us that it is so, as does Tradition, and the Saints.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary