Is Adolf Hitler in Heaven?

[PilgrimToChrist]

Prefect contrition may not be required for salvation but certainly genuine contrition is needed.

I know you are Methodist, but we would say that imperfect contrition only forgives sins if you have a priest to absolve you. Even then, without sufficient penance, you would still go through Purgatory.

If Hitler, assuming he didn't despair and commit suicide, made an act of perfect contrition prior to his death, he would have bypassed Purgatory and gone straight to Heaven. If he only had imperfect contrition, he would not have gone to Purgatory but to Hell without the Church's help through the ministry of the Sacrament of Penance. So thus without the aid of a priest, a sinner has only two possibilities -- Heaven with perfect contrition or Hell with anything less.

 

[Hentenza]

Then you don't know what "an act of perfect charity is".

Define it for clarity then please.

 

[PilgrimToChrist]

Define it for clarity then please.

As I discussed in the thread on Baptism, Charity is an infused virtue -- it comes from God. An act of perfect charity is a profession of supernatural love of God, which only God can give the soul. It is an internal movement of the soul which is usually accompanied by a prayer though it can be simple as saying the Holy Name, even silently -- this is why that as someone is dying we try to get them to say the Holy Name of Jesus but if they are too weak to even speak, those present continually whisper it in the dying person's ear to encourage them to think on Jesus.

A common prayer which is an act of charity:

O my God, I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured. Amen.

Prayers are not magic formula, they are supposed to move the soul in a particular way. It is not "saying" that we love God which is efficacious, it is actually loving God. If I was in a relationship and my boyfriend/husband said "I love you" there is a big difference between those being empty words and him actually meaning what he is saying and that is merely natural love (assuming he loves me for my sake and not for the sake of God). Supernatural love, which we call Charity (L. caritas, Gr. αγάπη [agape]), which is the only love that is salvific, can only come from God.

Therefore, since Charity is a gift of God which we utilize by making acts of Charity, professing our love for God through prayers and other actions, in no way can it be considered to have come from us and thus be "pelagian" as you said. Indeed, perfect charity is the only way to Heaven.

 

[StThomasMore]

I know you are Methodist, but we would say that imperfect contrition only forgives sins if you have a priest to absolve you. Even then, without sufficient penance, you would still go through Purgatory.

If Hitler, assuming he didn't despair and commit suicide, made an act of perfect contrition prior to his death, he would have bypassed Purgatory and gone straight to Heaven. If he only had imperfect contrition, he would not have gone to Purgatory but to Hell without the Church's help through the ministry of the Sacrament of Penance. So thus without the aid of a priest, a sinner has only two possibilities -- Heaven with perfect contrition or Hell with anything less.

what if someone has imperfect contrition and dies before he makes a confession to a priest? I think I read once in a council that if this happens the person makes amends in purgatory.