Are We Obliged to Pray for the Unrepentant?
Prayer for the dead is certainly an important Catholic teaching. Part of our charitable work to do on this earth is to be in strong communion with the entire mystical body of Christ. With this in mind, recent events got me me thinking: what if someone who was almost certainly in a state of unrepentant mortal sin died - should we pray for them? Should we resist praying for them since they were likely damned? Is denying them prayers a sin against charity? What is the proper Catholic response?
We, the church militant, are here on the battlefield. We are “running the race”, to use St. Paul’s own analogy.1 While we are here we need to contend with the reality of evil, whether it is supernatural or natural evil, and need to persist through that suffering to the end, after which we hope we may see the face of God.
The church triumphant are experientially righteous men and women who have seen the face of God. They are in a more real proximity to Him than we can imagine. After all, as St. Paul quotes: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”2 We can maintain our shared communion with these saints by praying to them and requesting their intercession - just like we do here on earth with our fellow soldiers. Unlike our fellow soldiers, however, these men and women are perfectly righteous as they have been forged into that perfection by the vision of God and not only by their own efforts (aided by grace) on earth.
The church suffering are those of the members of the body of Christ who have finished their earthly trials and are awaiting their eternal reward. Like most of us here on earth they have attachment to sin that needs to be worked out of their system. When God makes us righteous it isn’t meant to be understood as a legal fiction, but as a metaphysical reality. And in His justice, this process is by fire, and not simply by a snap of His fingers. To aid our faithfully departed brothers and sisters we can pray intercessory prayers for them to comfort them in this time. It’s certainly not a pleasant experience to go through purgatory. Some private revelations of Saints have even suggested that if we knew how rough it was going to be there, we would try a lot harder to get the hard work done while we’re here on earth.
Those who have passed but are not part of the mystical body of Christ we call the damned. They are not in communion with God’s supernatural love. Thus, since love is the principle which joins us all in communion together, we are not in communion with them either. Praying on their behalf profits them nothing. In fact, the Angelic Doctor says himself that praying for the damned is rash and unfounded, and states none of the saints would ever pray for them.3 Other faith traditions such as the Eastern Orthodox have held that the prayers of the righteous can save souls from hell, but it is because they say the final judgment has not yet come for any soul.
The difference between us and the church triumphant in this manner is our knowledge: ours is imperfect and thus we cannot know who is damned and who is suffering in purgatory after death. God does not reveal this to us here on earth, as even the Church does not state who is definitively in a state of damnation. It is a mercy that God does not show us the numbers in hell - it may lead us to despair if it were too high, or indifference if the number were too few. Some, called universalists, believe with (false) certainty that hell is entirely empty - but to believe that is anathema.
The church has historically restricted the Rite of Funerals to specific people. A funeral is meant to be a liturgical expression of the hope we have that the faithfully departed person will be cleansed of their sin and enter into heaven. They may not be there yet, which is why publicly we cannot make affirmative claims that they are in heaven or ask for intercessory prayer from them (to do so is scandalous). The Church steers us away from this natural inclination specifically out of charity for the repose of their soul. Our prayers are needed to comfort them in their purification. We assume the person is in purgatory even if it is possible that they are in heaven to make sure they remember their likely need of our intercession.
However, the Church denies funerals to those who died in certain situations.4 For example, a notorious apostate, schismatic, or heretic is to be denied a funeral. Funerals are also to be denied of non baptized people unless they were catechumens. And of specific relevance, funerals are to be denied to people, based on the discretion of the clergy, of people whose funeral would cause public scandal or confusion of the faithful. A concrete example of this might be a man who died in a state of perpetual mortal sin like one in a same sex “marriage.”
The church does this to help solidify the fact that we ought to have legitimate hope and peace in the end destination of a soul when the Church offers sacrifice on behalf of the departed. We can’t be sure that they are going to go to heaven, but we have good reason to hope.
The Church teaches that any man who dies with unrepentant mortal sin in accordance with his own knowledge will be damned. The church also teaches that souls which are damned are beyond prayer as mentioned above. But, we cannot know for certain whether this person is damned. To commit a mortal sin, it is required that:
- The sinner be operating with full knowledge of what they are doing
- The sinner be operating with deliberate consent to do what is to be done
- The sinner be committing something of grave matter
Knowledge can be lessened based on understanding of the perpetrator. Consent can be lessened based on the mental state of the perpetrator. And these are matters of the heart that only God can know for certain. But this doesn’t mean we can’t have any idea of the situation. In fact, the Church makes these judgments when it denies funerals and other public veneration for someone who is deceased. It is based on whether we have a reasonable hope that this person died in a state of grace.
While it may be compelling to simply take the Church's position and avoid prayer entirely for those who publicly died in a state of unrepentant mortal sin (as the Church teaches definitively that if they did die in this state they would be damned), we do need to distinguish public and private prayer. Public prayer is ritualized worship done on the authority of the Church. The divine office, the Mass, and funeral rites are examples of this. Private prayer is prayer we all do on our own by prompting of the Spirit or conscience. Public prayer is under a special scrutiny because it carries the force of the Church's authority.
So let's make the example concrete. Let’s say a would-be presidential assassin kills an innocent bystander and critically injures two others right before his own life is taken in just defense of the innocent. Should we pray for his soul?
Is there reasonable hope that a shooter who did the above did not commit a mortal sin? I'd say no. Perhaps if he only attempted Trump’s murder and didn’t kill between one and three innocent people he could have had imperfection knowledge (thinking he was killing a would-be dictator and oppressor of people). But others died who did not fit that mental model.
Is there reasonable hope that the shooter would have repented after the acts were committed? It will always be a mystery the way a soul may be prompted by grace to repent in its last moments. With every Hail Mary we ask our Blessed Mother to pray for us at the hour of our death. Who knows how those prayers will affect someone right before they die - only the departed. But I think actions such as this are extraordinary dispensations of grace, not ordinary ones. And as they are extraordinary, I would suggest that it is not a reasonable hope that we have of repentance here.
So I think what is reasonable to say in mostly clear cut situations like this is that the shooter is likely in hell. Out of charity and love for all people we wish the good for everyone, including unrepentant sinners. But supernatural love does not abide in hell. This virtue of love we possess derives from the supernatural love of God which he allows us to participate in. The saints are not praying for the reprobated souls in hell. They do not even pity them, but rejoice in the application of God’s justice.
If the Church refuses to offer public prayer for a person in a situation like this (it has done this for many famous mafiosos, as an example), I’d say that following the Church's example of abstinence for this type of prayer is permissible.5 A Catholic ought not be obliged to pray for someone for whom he does not have reasonable hope of salvation.
At the same time, praying for this person is totally acceptable, and there are many different ways to go about doing this.
- We can conditionally pray that if he is in purgatory his suffering be lessened
- We can pray that God offers the man grace at the moment of his death to repent
- We could pray that God mete out His justice and mercy on this person according to His Divine will
That last one is always a safe prayer because it submits our understanding to God’s perfect one - so we can never go wrong with it.
The worst case scenario in praying for this man is that he is damned and our prayers profit nothing for him; but that prayer may still profit our own heart and assist in our own sanctification by perfecting our charity. And even if he is damned, the grace God has in store as response for our intercession is part of the treasury of grace, offered to all in purgatory who may need it.
We should wish and hope that every soul be saved. But the reality is that not everyone will be. If we take the radical hope position, we may overlook the comfort that God's justice can provide. It is often misunderstood that God’s mercy is at odds with his justice; this is totally and utterly untrue. Nothing within God is at odds with anything else within Him - he is in absolutely perfect harmony with Himself. Mercy is not an opposing force to justice, but one that works closely and intimately with it. It is justice that grants us what is due - punishment for our temporal sin. It is by God’s mercy, however, that He sent His Son to provide propitiation for sins eternal consequences, and it is by mercy that God extends out His hand to offer these merits to all who cooperate.
For the dead spectator and those injured, the only justice they will have is in God's just punishment or purification of the offender. In either case, justice is done. In the former case, the man is eternally separated from God as punishment for his sins. In the latter case, the man suffers in purgatory and is purified of fire commensurate with the attachment to evil and creaturely goods within himself.
None who trust God's supernatural justice and mercy with all of their heart will be disappointed at the entrance of a sinner into heaven - they are open to salvation being an outcome of that justice, applied.
Part of the reason for writing this reflection is that some Catholics seems split on this issue. Many people see it as a Christian virtue to pray for unrepentant sinners like the above, and a sin against charity to “refuse” to pray for them. But I’ve countered that no such obligation to pray for every particular person who dies exists - and a Catholic can in good conscience avoid praying for them as long as they do not condemn other Catholics who choose to do so especially when there is not reasonable hope.
One tactic I haven’t been a fan of is to accuse people who do not pray for these types of people as going against the example of the saints. They bring up great saints like St. Maximillian Kolbe as examples to follow. The story goes that when St. Maximillian was faced with his own death at the hands of oppressors, he requested that they inject his left hand with the death serum to spare his right that he may offer them absolution for their transgressions.
It is important to note a few distinctions between St. Maximillian Kolbe’s:
Firstly, absolution is being offered but is not immediately effectuated in his actions. St. Maximillian did not absolve them of their sins; he could only offer absolution. Additionally this is only possible because he is a priest who has been granted authority to offer absolution which is a unique way charity manifests in his position in life.
Secondly, all sin is committed against God. The forgiveness we offer as individuals is different than the forgiveness God offers. We forgive trespasses committed against us as we hope God will forgive our trespasses commited against Him. In this case, St. Maximillian Kolbe is offering forgiveness (both as a member of the clergy and thus on behalf of God and as an individual) to his transgressors. Even still, as forgiveness is a two way street, no absolution is possible until repentance of the trespassors.
Thirdly, and importantly, his enemies are not dead. There is always hope of repentance and forgiveness so long as a person has even one more breath to take. Making the love of Christ known to the person and being a beacon of His glory, as is this great Saint, is a great way to call them to repentance so they can take advantage of the absolution offered.
Thus, this is a totally asymmetrical situation to the situation of remote enemies who are enemies in an abstract sense only and have not directly trespassed against us.
I think maligning fellow Catholics may bring these people into the sin of rash judgment, and we should be very careful on how we proceed in matters like these.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, ora pro nobis.