WHERE WILL THE SUICIDE BOMBERS GO AFTER THEY DIE ?

Bishop Anthony Lobo, Bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Pakistan gave a talk about seven years back at the Urbaniana Pontifical University, Rome. At the end of the talk to students and professors, the bishop was asked a question about the suicide bombers.”Where will they go after they die?” or “Where are they going at the time of death?”

He responded, “Only after we die we will know where they have gone”. To Paradise or elsewhere.

Many Roman Catholics priest could answer to Paradise. Since they do not believe in the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The Catholic Church has affirmed the dogma in Dominus Iesus (2000) and the CDF Notification on Dupuis (2001).

The Catholic Church rejected the ‘theology of religions’ as taught by the late Fr. Jacques Dupuis S.J (Notification, Dupuis, 2001). There is no theology which can say that Islam or the other religions are paths to salvation said the Notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Muslims, the Notification indicated, are called to be members of the Catholic Church for salvation. Every Muslim needs to be oriented into the Catholic Church ,Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in the Notification which Pope John Paul II approved a year after Dominus Iesus.

So if Islam is not a path to salvation and Muslims need to enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven, according to the Catholic Church, then Muslim suicide bombers are dying in vain, according to Catholic teaching.

If in general they are not oriented to Heaven at the time of death imagine the fright they will have when they show up on the other side of the vale.

When I say in general, it means in principle, at the intellectual level (de jure) Muslims are oriented to Hell except for the exceptions. The exceptions include those in invincible ignorance or who have a good conscience known only to God. In general the ordinary way to go to Heaven is Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water-and not the exceptions (good conscience etc).

De facto, in reality, at the pastoral level, in personal contact, during evangelization, I would not use the phrase in general but say –all Muslims need to enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven and avoid Hell. All, without any exception. Since de facto I cannot judge, neither can anyone else, which Muslim has a genuine baptism of desire etc. Only Jesus can judge.

So in general (de jure) suicide bombers are oriented to Hell barring the exceptions.

De facto all Muslim suicide bombers are oriented to Hell since outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation at all. Explicit-exclusive entry into the Catholic Church is the only de facto way to go to Heaven for an informed person. The Church is the only Ark of salvation in the Flood (Catechism of the Catholic Church),

To put it simply- the dogma says de facto everybody needs to enter the Catholic Church to avoid Hell and go to Heaven. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The Church says so.