Why you Want to Avoid Hell – The Inner Life – July 13, 2026

Father John Eckert joins Deacon Patrick Conley to discuss Why you Want to Avoid Hell

  • (7:17) Joseph – For Catholics who don’t confess and go to the priest to get their sins absolved, is it in the church’s norms to proclaim they are in hell?
  • (15:32) Margaret – I think people don’t understand the definition is love. When you cut off from God, you’re cutting off eternally.

(25:05) Break 1

  • Fatima’s vision of hell.
  • (34:24) Prescott – Fires of Hell…spirits…how does that affect us?
  • (37:46) Email – Is the Fire of God’s love the same as the fire of Hell?

(41:32) Break 2

  • (43:16) Tessa – Thinking about hell…wondering if it’s a fair thing to talk to somebody who is walking away and telling them they’re choosing to walk away and out of a state of grace.
  • (48:15) How to be aware of hell without falling into despair?
Patrick Conley was born, raised, and baptized in Wisconsin in a Protestant tradition. After meeting his wife, Kendra, through an Evangelical ministry at the University of Minnesota, they entered the Catholic Church in 2010. They listened to Relevant Radio, specifically The Inner Life, while preparing to enter the Church. Conley now holds a degree in theology from Oxford University and has served the Church in both academic theology and grassroots pastoral ministry. Conley teaches religion classes in a Catholic elementary school, serves as his parish Director of Religious Education, and is in formation for the permanent diaconate. He also hosts Practicing Catholic on Relevant Radio, exclusive to the Minneapolis area’s airwaves, and is a traveling presenter for the Catherine of Siena Institute apostolate. He lives in rural Wisconsin with his wife and their bulldogs, Georgie and Bingley.