Hell, Yes! by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, July 15, 2025

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

Hell exists. In fact it is easily accessible, via a toll-free road. That is unpopular message of The Hell There Is, by Msgr. Charles Pope.

Give Msgr. Pope credit for courage: for taking on a topic that few preachers want to touch. (Give him credit, too for a terrific book title.) While critics of the Catholic Church—and of Christianity in general—complain about hellfire-and-brimstone sermons, the truth is that most preachers shy away from the topic of hell, preferring to focus on more pleasant aspects of the faith.

Still hell is there, like it or not; that door is always open to us. “We are free to choose,” Msgr. Pope observes; “but we are not free not to choose.”

If Christian preachers of the 21st century avoid mention of hell, who keeps alive the belief in the real possibility of damnation? Well, start with Jesus Himself. Anyone who has read the Gospels without rose-tinted glasses has encountered the frequent warnings about the narrow gate and the outer darkness and the gnashing of teeth and the weeds that are thrown in the furnace—yes, to burn. In his parables Jesus routinely describes the dire consequences of making the wrong choice. When He sends out his disciples, He instructs them first to call people to repentance. …

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