Rosery beads QUESTION from Cora Conley May 2, 2001 could you please help me out, I really love rosary beads and I finally got given some and i was told that the name on the cross would tell me what country they came from, it says alpacca on the cross it is beautiful and silver. While I have got your attention my late sister married into a catholic family and so her children were also catholics.When my sister died she was with her boyfreind (a married man )so does this mean she didn't go to heaven even though all her life she had done nothing but kindness to everyone.And 2 of her Children commited suicide when they grew up so did they miss out on heaven as well. Thanks Cora
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on July 8, 2001 Dear Miss Conley:
I do not know the meaning of alpacca. sorry.
As for your sister, no one knows. We cannot know who goes to heaven or hell, except when the Church pronounces a canonized Saints -- canonized Saints we KNOW are in heaven.
If your sister was having a illicit affair with a married man, that was indeed a grave sin. But whether that sin was counted as mortal to her we cannot know.
What determines if you go to heaven or hell is whether one dies with mortal sin on their soul. A person who dies with mortal sin on their soul goes to hell. A person who dies free of mortal sin, goes to heaven (perhaps through purgatory).
The sin that your sister was committing when she died does qualify for possible mortal sin status, but we can never know for sure if it was counted as mortal to her. If there was any impairment of free will, for example, a grave sin may not be counted as mortal. Impairment of free will can be caused by psychological factors or many other things.
Also we cannot know that maybe your sister repented of her sin at the last second.
Bottom line: we cannot know for sure, but we can hope that she repented at the last moment of life and is now in heaven with Jesus.
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