Topic: What happens after we die?

Source of this posting: Moderator response to emailed question

Date originally posted: March 27, 2002

Moderator who originally posted this source: B. Egan

Question: One area of my faith Catholic that is unclear to me is death.  Upon death, what are the possible destinations for the soul?  Also, when does a soul reach those destinations?  Is it immediately upon death?  Does judgment occur at death, or at Judgment day; and is Judgment day the same as the resurrection?   At the resurrection, is heaven the final place.  If so is it the same heaven that the soul is at prior to the resurrection? I know its full of questions, but hopefully there is a focused answer.  Thank you

Answer: 

These are good questions…and you can find more complete answers to them in the resource I used for my research, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

“Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven – through purification or immediately – or immediate and everlasting damnation” (n. 1022).  Therefore there are three possible destinations of the soul upon death: Heaven (see notes 1023-1029 in the Catechism), Purgatory (notes 1030-1032), and Hell (notes 1033-1037).  And the soul reaches its destination at the moment of death. 

 As for when judgment occurs, it appears that there are two different moments of judgment.  “The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith” (n. 1021).  Judgment Day is in fact linked directly to the resurrection of the dead, for the Church teaches that “the resurrection of all the dead, ‘of both the just and the unjust,’ will precede the Last Judgment.  This will be ‘the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (n. 1038).  Those who will share in the “resurrection of life” will join God in a “new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem.”  The “new heavens and a new earth” spoken of in Revelation will replace the heaven where souls resided prior to the Judgment Day.  There is much more information on the heavenly Jerusalem in notes 1042-1050 of the Catechism.

Click here to read a portion of a live, moderated chat session which deals with Hell and Satan.