The SSPV, The Roman Catholic,  Fall 2003, p. 7: “With the strict, literal interpretation of this doctrine, however, I must take issue, for if I read and understand the strict interpreters correctly, nowhere is allowance made for invincible ignorance, conscience, or good faith on the part of those who are not actual or formal members of the Church at the moment of death.  It is inconceivable to me that, of all the billions of non-Catholics who have died in the past nineteen and one-half centuries, none of them were in good faith in this matter and, if they were, I simply refuse to believe that hell is their eternal destiny.”

EPISTOLA
 DEL SOMMO PONTEFICE
 GREGORIO XVI

DOLOREM QUO

[...]
Certo non altro vogliono i ministri protestanti se non che il clero cattolico, indotto a un tal modo di agire, attenui poi nel popolo fedele la memoria di quel dogma che riguarda la necessità della fede e dell’unità cattolica, al fine di raggiungere la salvezza; così essi potranno più facilmente adescare molti altri, in modo che si allontanino dallo stretto sentiero della verità cattolica e imbocchino sciaguratamente l’ampia via dell’errore e della perdizione.
[...]

Of course, Protestant ministers want nothing more than for the Catholic clergy, induced to act in such a way, to soften in the faithful people the memory of that dogma that concerns the necessity of faith and Catholic unity, in order to reach salvation; in this way they can more easily lure many others away from the narrow path of Catholic truth and take the wide path of error and perdition.

[font=&quot,serif]#1 they think that Hell is an amorphous solid mass of horrific punishments
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Scripture describes Hell as a place of fire and torment. I challenge you to find any passage either in Scripture or a theologian that supports your idea of the uncomfortable-but-not-horrible places in Hell. I have never come across anything resembling that in anything I have read on the Faith. Every saint I have ever read also describes Hell as a place of, in your words, "horrific punishments".

That's true, but the Church has also always taught that the punishments in Hell are proportional to the offences that got you there.

If the minimum in Hell for committing one unconfessed mortal sin is unimaginable, incomprehensible tortures, does proportional punishment even matter at that point?

I suppose it's impossible to understand what Hell is like, but it's hard to grasp how the minimum could be, well, hellish torment while still allowing for degrees of punishment a thousand times worse than that again.

I wonder if any theologian has ever elaborated on how the torments would differ depending on the sin's, a version of Dante's Inferno but based on actual Church teaching.

I'm curious about this.  Last Tradhican rightly replied that Limbo is a paradise in Hell.

So one does wonder if a naturally virtuous pagan who didn't have supernatural faith but had few mortal sins could perhaps get something that is not quite that but maybe somewhat close to it, perhaps suffering the pain of loss alone, as is shown by Dante's 1st circle, or perhaps some mild torment.

as is shown by Dante's

From what I'm aware, the *images* of Hell in Scripture and Tradition are primarily intended to make people fearful to end up there (though that's not to say they aren't accurate, understand.)  And since Scripture is written to Catholics, could we *speculate* that what's being described there is the kind of torment that Catholics who don't cooperate with the many graces they are given are going to end up with?  And that perhaps, say, some Muslim in the sand dunes of Saudi Arabia who lives a naturally good life might end up with an eternity that's.... something closer to just living in Saudi Arabia?

I find the speculation interesting at any rate and I'm curious if anything would rule it out.