Dear Agnes:

Be not afraid, and take heart, God is merciful and patient.

While our faith cannot save others, our faith can be effective to help persuade others. The perseverance of our prayers can be very powerful in God's economy to bring the Holy Spirit to bear upon the person to persuade him. But...

...we must understand that each person has free will to choose his own direction in life. Not even God will force a person to be His friend. If a person chooses to reject the friendship of God even unto death God will not violate the person's choice and that person will be in eternity without God. But...

... remember that the Church teaches that for a grave sin to be counted to the person as mortal that the person must have the unimpaired ability for free volition, to freely choose, to commit mortal sin. If your father is mentally ill, or even if he is demonized, it is likely that his ability to make an informed and truly free decision to reject God is impaired. If that is the case, then the mortal sin may not be counted against him by reason of "diminished capacity" and he may still see the heavenly country.

For those who do not have some mental or spiritual condition that impairs their ability for free choice, I believe they have one last chance just before their death.

While the Church does not teach what I am about to say, what I propose is based on logic and upon what we do know about the Nature of God.

God is love and He is a perfect Father who perfectly loves. I know that if my wayward daughter was falling off a cliff, regardless of the fact that she has rejected me, I would reach out to her and say, "Daughter, this is your last chance, take my hand and live."

If I, a terrible father, would do this, would not God the Father, who is a perfect Father, do the same?

God says that He does not want anyone to perish. This, I believe that each person who is dying without God is given one last chance. I believe that in the last nanosecond of life the Jesus Himself appears to the person and appeals to them one last time to accept Him and to take His hand.

This applies to everyone. I think that even Hitler, in the last nanosecond of life as the bullet was entering his head, that Jesus appeared to him and said, "Adolf, this is your last chance, will you accept Me?"

We will never know in this life how Adolf answered that question.

Bottomline: If your father is mentally ill or impaired by demonic curse or bondage, then it is likely that he will be covered by the Doctrine of Diminished Capacity, and thus all other things being equal, he will be raised to heavenly glory anyway.

If your father does not have diminished capacity, then I believe he will have one last chance in the last nanosecond before his death to take the hand of our Lord and be lead into glory.

Our prayers and hope is for either of these possibilities.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary