Question:
Answer:
When calling attention to sins involving divorce and remarriage (or any serious sin), it takes a good amount of spiritual discernment and wisdom to know the best way to approach things. You need guidance. I recommend you speak with the priest about your situation. He will give you proper counsel. Trust that the Lord will guide you.
As for your concern about your friend going to hell, the Church has never made any pronouncement on who is in hell. Nor can we judge someone’s heart. The Catechism states, “Although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God” (1861). It is a spiritual work of mercy to “admonish the sinner” concerning his actions and even warn him of the possible grave consequences, but we must be careful to leave the “judgment of persons” to God (CCC 2447).
In his General Audience of Wednesday, July 28, 1999, Pope St. John Paul II said:
Eternal damnation remains a real possibility. We are not granted, without special divine revelation, the knowledge of which human beings are effectively involved in it. The thought of hell . . . must not create anxiety or despair but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6) (L’Osservatore Romano, Aug. 4, 1999).
Above all, never forget that God loves your friend more than you do. He died for him. Although we do not know precisely how God will deal with him, we do know that God doesn’t want anyone to perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). We also know that he is a merciful and just God (Psalm 136).