The Catholic News Agency portal reports on a talk delivered by “Fr.” Mike Schmitz at the SEEK 2026 conference, where he claims hell exists as a “human choice” permitted by God’s goodness. Schmitz states: “If I want not God, I get not God… he simply gives us what we’ve actually chosen,” framing eternal damnation as divine respect for free will. He dismisses as “bologna sandwich” the theological opinion that God’s final revelation would compel all to choose Him, arguing this would make God a “tyrant” who violates human freedom. The article concludes with Schmitz’s assertion that “purgatory has already started” and “heaven has already started every day.”
Naturalism Disguised as Divine Justice
Schmitz’s presentation reduces the mysterium iniquitatis (mystery of iniquity) to a crude transactional formula: “If I want not God, I get not God.” This dangerously oversimplifies the Church’s teaching that hell constitutes poena damni (punishment of loss) and poena sensus (punishment of sense) – eternal fire consciously experienced (Matthew 25:41). The Council of Florence’s Laetentur Caeli (1439) dogmatically defined that those dying in mortal sin “immediately descend into hell, to be punished with different punishments” (Denzinger 1306). Schmitz’s description omits this essential aspect of active divine judgment, presenting damnation as passive divine acquiescence rather than judicial sentence.
Omission of the Church’s Necessary Role in Salvation
Notably absent is any reference to Christ’s establishment of the Catholic Church as the sole ark of salvation. Pope Pius IX’s encyclical Quanto conficiamur moerore (1863) condemned the error that “the way of eternal salvation can be found in any religion whatsoever” (Denzinger 1677). Schmitz’s formulation “if that’s what I want, God… gives that to me” implicitly validates the heresy of indifferentism condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 16). The Church has always taught that explicit rejection of her teachings constitutes rejection of Christ Himself (Luke 10:16).
False Mercy Versus True Justice
Schmitz’s claim that recognizing hell “preserves God’s goodness” contains a deadly half-truth. While God indeed respects free will, the Catechism of St. Pius X clarifies: “God does not send anyone to hell; he only confirms the soul in the evil state it has chosen.” However, Schmitz’s emphasis on human autonomy obscures the gravest truth: No one chooses hell with full knowledge and consent, as St. Alphonsus Liguori warns: “There is no sinner who, before sinning, would willingly damn his soul” (Preparation for Death). The article’s silence on Satan’s role in blinding souls (2 Corinthians 4:4) reveals its naturalistic assumptions.
Purgatory Reduced to Self-Help Program
Schmitz’s flippant treatment of purgatory as a “plan B” where “God grows your heart two sizes too big” constitutes sacrilege against the Church’s doctrine. The Council of Trent defined purgatory as involving “purifying fires” (Session 25), while St. Thomas Aquinas specifies these pains surpass all earthly suffering (Suppl, q.70, a.3). By claiming “purgatory has already started… heaven has already started every day,” Schmitz promotes the Modernist heresy condemned in Pius X’s Lamentabili (Proposition 58): “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him.” This blurs the distinction between the Church Militant, Suffering, and Triumphant – a hallmark of the conciliar sect’s destruction of eschatology.
Modernist Subversion of Free Will
Schmitz’s caricature of God as potential “tyrant” if He were to ensure all souls choose Him exposes his theological bankruptcy. St. Augustine refutes this in City of God (XXII, 1): “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to permit no evil.” The article never mentions sacramental grace, mortal sin, or the necessity of sanctifying grace for salvation – omissions revealing the neo-church’s Pelagian tendencies. As St. Robert Bellarmine explains: “Free will without God’s grace is not free at all, but is the slave of evil” (De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, I, 12).
This presentation exemplifies the conciliar sect’s strategy: preserve Catholic vocabulary while evacuating it of supernatural content. Schmitz reduces hell to a self-help motivational talk, stripping it of its power to convert sinners through holy fear – precisely what St. Ignatius called “the beginning of wisdom” (Spiritual Exercises, 23). When agents of the counterfeit church speak of hell, they invariably do so to legitimize apostasy, not to save souls. As Our Lord warned: “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:16). The fruit of Schmitz’s teaching is not repentance, but complacency in rebellion against Christ the King.
Source:
Father Mike Schmitz says hell exists as human choice given by God in his goodness (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 03.01.2026