No, the one man doesn't need "more mercy." Both men need the grace of God, they need God working to save them. Period.

Does God work "harder" for the one man than another to save them?

Decem, you need to check the label on that brew, mate!

Right here and now, as we pray, we are not all unbaptised newborn babies condemned to hell. There are souls of good will, living in the grace of God, whom Our Heavenly Father looks upon with delight. And there are those at enmity with God who are on the brink of damnation. If God were to call each and everyone of us to account at this moment, you say there would be no difference in the need of these souls? You need to do a course in the meaning of words!

"Pray very much and make sacrifices for sinners for many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them". If your common sense doesn't tell you, these words of Our Lady of Fatima do: sinners (unrepentant being implied) have greater need, here and now, than the just, of prayer to obtain God's mercy for them to save their souls.

"There shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance more than upon ninety-nine just that need not penance".

One who is gravely sick needs a physician, the healthy do not. Those in the state of sin especially need prayer and penance.

"Pray for us O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ".
The grace of God truly makes us worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Those at enmity with God especially need His mercy that they may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Even more urgently do those poor souls in the state of sin who are now at the moment of death. This is not rocket science, Decem, but I fear that is what you are trying to make it.

If not all souls go to Heaven, as you point out, do you mean to suggest that we should not pray for all? It is God's Will that all should be saved. We pray for God's Will: "Thy Will be done on earth"... yet alas, it will often not be done (we are talking here about God's antecedent Will, the obvious meaning of the prayer). It may very well be that this or that soul did not go to Heaven, because I did not pray and sacrifice for him, because I was not faithful to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, because I did not become the saint that God wanted me to become. Which of us can free ourselves from guilt on this account? How many souls might have gone to Heaven if I had been faithful? It is a sobering and humbling meditation...

Those at enmity with God especially need His mercy that they may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

If not all souls go to Heaven, as you point out, do you mean to suggest that we should not pray for all? It is God's Will that all should be saved. We pray for God's Will: "Thy Will be done on earth"... yet alas, it will often not be done (we are talking here about God's antecedent Will, the obvious meaning of the prayer). It may very well be that this or that soul did not go to Heaven, because I did not pray and sacrifice for him, because I was not faithful to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, because I did not become the saint that God wanted me to become. Which of us can free ourselves from guilt on this account? How many souls might have gone to Heaven if I had been faithful? It is a sobering and humbling meditation...

The first condition then of prayer is, that you make it "for yourself"; because St. Thomas holds, that one man cannot "ex condigno" [i.e. in the fitness of things] obtain for another eternal life; nor, consequently, even those graces which are requisite for his salvation. Since, as he says, the promise is made not to others, but only to those that pray: "He shall give to you." Nevertheless, there are many theologians, Cornelius a Lapide, Sylvester, Tolet, Habert, and others, who hold the opposite doctrine, on the authority of St. Basil, who teaches that prayer, by virtue of God's promise, is infallibly efficacious, even for those for whom we pray, provided they put no positive impediment in the way. And they support their doctrine by Scripture: "Pray one for another, that you may be saved; for the continual prayer of the just man availeth much." [James 5: 16] "Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you." [Luke 6: 28]


Liguori, Alphonsus. Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection (p. 39). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition.

Council of Trent, Session VI

CHAPTER IV.


A Description is interwoven[16] of the Justification of the Impious, and of the Manner thereof under the State of Grace.

By which words a description of the Justification of the impious is interwoven, to the effect that it is a translation from that state in which man is born a child of the first Adam, into the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God,[17] through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And this translation, since the Gospel has been promulgated, cannot be effected, without the laver of regeneration,[18] or the desire thereof, as it is written; Unless a man be born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.


CHAPTER XIV.


On the Fallen, and their Restoration.

But those who through sin have fallen away from the received grace of justification, may again be justified, when, God exciting them, through the sacrament of penance, they, by the merit of Christ, shall have obtained the recovery of the grace lost. For this manner of justification is unto the fallen the reparation, which the holy fathers have aptly called a second plank after the shipwreck of grace lost.[79] For, on behalf of those who after baptism fall into sins, Christ Jesus instituted the sacrament of penance, when He said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye shall remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye shall retain, they are retained.[80] Whence it is to be taught, that the penitence of a Christian man after his fall, is very different from that at his baptism; and that therein are included not only a cessation from sins, and a detestation thereof, or, a contrite and humble heart,[81] but also the sacramental confession of the same sins, at least in desire, and to be made in its season, and sacerdotal absolution; and likewise satisfaction by fasts, almsgivings, prayers, and the other pious exercises of a spiritual life; not indeed for the eternal punishment, which is, together with the guilt, remitted, either by the sacrament, or by the desire of the sacrament; but for the temporal punishment, which, as the sacred writings teach, is not always wholly remitted, as is done in baptism, unto those who, ungrateful to the grace of God which they have received, have grieved the Holy Spirit,[82] and have not feared to defile the temple of God.[83] Concerning which penitence it is written: Remember from whence thou art fallen; do penance, and do the first works.[84] And again: The sorrow that is according to God worketh penance steadfast unto salvation.[85] And again: Do penance, and bring forth fruits worthy of penance.[86]