Doctrinal UniversalismBarron professes the heresy of
doctrinal universalism,
The theory that hell is essentially a kind of purgatory in which sins are expiated, so that eventually everyone will be saved. Also called apokatastasis, it was condemned by the church in A.D. 543, against the Origenists, who claimed that
the punishment of devils and wicked men is temporary and will eventually cease, that is to say, that devils or the ungodly will be completely restored to their original state
(Denzinger 411).
Balthasar & Barron believe hell is empty.The
Modernist,
syncretist,
New Theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1905-1988), influenced by the fake mystic
Adrienne von Speyr, promoted the heresy that hell is empty. He also wrote the
afterword of a book on Tarot cards and the occult.
Barron wrote the preface to the 2
nd edition of Balthasar's
Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved.
One cannot hope for the impossible.The
intellectual virtue of faith precedes the virtue of hope,
which exists in the will, since the intellect precedes the will (cf. 21
st Thomistic thesis). The object of hope cannot contradict reason.
Discussing how faith precedes hope in
Summa Theologica II-II q. 17 a. 7 co., St. Thomas Aquinas writes:
the object of hope is a future good, arduous but possible to obtain
Obiectum enim spei est bonum futurum arduum possibile haberi.
Thus, one cannot hope for impossible things, e.g., that God doesn't exist, that He contradict Himself, that the Church's dogmas change, that 2+2=5, etc.
Religious IndifferentismRelated to his
universalist heresy, Barron professes the heresy of
religious indifferentism, which holds that no one religion is necessary for salvation. Recently,
he told a Jєω that Jesus is the "privileged way" of salvation, which implies there are other means of salvation, directly contradicting, e.g.,
Acts 4:12 ("Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.").
Hell exists, and its punishments are perpetual.Athanasian Creed (
D 40):
those who have done good, will go into life everlasting, but those who have done evil, into eternal fire
qui bona egerunt, ibunt in vitam æternam, qui vero mala, in ignem æternum
The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) defined the dogma that the rejected will receive (
D 429):
everlasting punishment with the devil
cuм diabolo pœnam perpetuam
Once a soul is damned, there is no hope that it will be saved.
These dogmas are
de fide ("of the faith").
Contradicting a de fide truth incurs the censure of heresy; the effects of denying it are:
Mortal sin committed directly against the virtue of faith, and, if the heresy is outwardly professed, excommunication is automatically incurred and membership of the Church forfeited.
(source)