Natuzza Evolo, the famous Italian mystic and stigmatist (see issue twenty-three of LOA) had the unique charism of talking with souls from heaven and purgatory as well as damned souls whom God forced to speak about their eternal punishment.
God bestowed upon Natuzza a special gift: she was able to see and meet the dead. Most often she saw them beside other people who visited her with requests for prayers and spiritual assistance.
“When people come to visit me—she said—I often see a dead person standing beside them. It might be their brother, sister, father or mother. These deceased persons tell me important things, which I then convey to the relative or friend. I can readily distinguish only the souls that come from heaven since they radiate great joy and float above the ground. Often I offer them a chair that they may sit down, but then they tell me, “I don’t need it as I am a soul from another world.”
The messages conveyed by the dead to those alive on earth often concerned married couples and their raising of children. For example, on October 5, 1947, Maria Mesiano recorded the words of a dead woman: “First of all, I speak to mothers: take care how your raise your children! They will turn out as you rear them. Woe to the mothers who block conception by artificial means and prevent their child from being born by abortion. If they do not repent, they risk eternal damnation and terrible suffering. Why should you wish to destroy the lives of the most innocent and defenseless human beings? Do you not know that God has called them forth to enjoy life together with you, that they may become angels and saints in heaven.”
The dead often urged more regular recourse to the sacrament of penance that mortal sins might be immediately forgiven and souls remain in a state of sanctifying grace: “Maybe someone will think—said one soul from purgatory—‘why confess to a priest, who may be a greater sinner than I?’ The answer is simple: because in the mystery of confession every priest represents God Himself and serves as His instrument. Through the sacrament of ordination, it is Christ Himself who acts and performs the miracle of forgiveness of sins. Ask God to forgive all your sins; express contrition and a resolve to make amends. After confessing a mortal sin go immediately to confession. In begging God to forgive our sins we stand protected from eternal damnation. Still, we will need to atone for the consequences of our sins in purgatory, where in some cases we will have to suffer numerous terrible sufferings lightened only by the certainty of our salvation.”
All those asking Natuzza for information about their dead loved ones received such clear and specific replies that they came away with the firm conviction that the dead lived and existed in heaven, purgatory, or hell.
Pasquale Barberio records that during his first meeting with Natuzza he learned that his father, who had died in 1944, was in purgatory and begging for prayers. Natuzza saw him standing beside Pasquale. She was able to talk with him and later describe to the son in detail what he looked like and what he wanted to convey to him. That same evening, during the recitation of rosary in which Barberio took part, the mystic saw a deceased seven-year-old boy with bandaged legs. It turned out he was Barberio’s nephew who had died in 1937 of an inflammation of the bone marrow. This one meeting with Natuzza was enough for Pasquale Barberio to turn his life around. From then on he began to pray daily and make a regular confession. Pasquale understood that his earthly life was not to be squandered, since it was a time of growing in love and preparation for heaven.
Father Giuseppe Mina relates that on one occasion there appeared to Natuzza the parents of a certain parish priest. “They begged her to appeal to their son in their name with a request that he break with sin. Reluctant to convey such a reminder to a priest, Natuzza delayed in carrying out their request. The souls of the dead parents then appeared to her several more times, reminding her that this was the will of God. In the end, Natuzza got up the nerve and went to the priest. After kissing his hand, she told him that she had come behalf of his parents. The priest smiled, saying that this was impossible since his parents had died years ago. Then Natuzza described in detail what they looked like and what they had told her about him changing his conduct. The priest was shocked by what he heard. Moved to tears, he promised he would change his life.”
Besides the gift of seeing and speaking directly to the dead, Natuzza would fall into ecstasies, during which time the people present heard voices of the dead. Dr. Valente of Paravati kept a careful record of their statements. They would give their name and surname, where they had lived on earth, and the precise date of their death.
On one occasion a group of fifteen persons at Natuzza’s home recognized the voice of Bishop Enrico Montalbetti of Reggio di Calabria who had died in a bombing raid in 1943. In his characteristic accent he delivered edifying sermons for their benefit.
Maria Domenica Silipo heard the voice of her grandfather who had died suddenly in 1944 without receiving the sacraments. A hotheaded man often given to swearing, he nevertheless took pity on the poor, often sharing his food and cooking meals for them. These acts of mercy, he said, had saved him from damnation.
Through Natuzza’s mediation, God sometimes commanded a damned soul to testify to the existence of hell. One of these was a famous Catholic philosopher and writer who gone to hell for committing some very serious sins. Out of pride he refused to confess himself before death. He refused to show remorse for the evil he had committed or to accept the gift of Divine Mercy.
The dead were able to reveal themselves to Natuzza not because she or someone else requested or demanded it, but because it was the will of God, If someone wanted the dead person to say more, the answer was unequivocal: “God will not allow us to say any more. Be patient and leave us in peace. We know what you expect and what you wish to hear, but now it is impossible.”
Those who witnessed Natuzza’s ecstasies agreed that all this was the result of God’s direct agency—independent of her will.
Eugenio Mauro was Chief Judge of the Court of Appeal in Milan. He practiced the occult, dabbled in spiritism, and was a well-known psychic medium. He was convinced that like Natuzza he had a mysterious spiritual power. On coming down to Paravati to witness Natuzza’s mystical ecstasies and hear the dead speak, he realized that by calling on the dead he was opening himself up to the action of diabolic forces. The judge experienced a spiritual shock, repented, and renounced all further involvement in the occult. He went to confession and became an ardent Catholic.
Rosa Silipo heard the voice of her little brother who had died twenty days after his birth in 1932. He was in heaven and spoke with a sweet and beautiful voice: “I am Pinuccio Silipo. Mama and you have caused me no little distress. Why do you never send me a gift. All the children give Jesus a gift, and I am always left behind, since I have nothing to offer Jesus.” Surprised, Rosa replied, “But you are an angel in heaven and have no need of prayers.” “That is true,” replied Pinuccio. “We do not need prayers, but we pass them on to Jesus, and He shares them out to those in greatest need. We very much want your prayers.”
During Natuzza’s ecstasies, Dr. Valente recognized the voices of those he had known during their lifetime on earth. He was deeply impressed by all he heard. On one occasion he was able to talk to his son who had died in childhood. The boy said, “Do you recognize me, Daddy?” “Of course I recognize you. Is there something you need?” replied his father. “No, Daddy, but I beg you to be nicer to your patients.” Dr. Valente was a good man, but he had a bad temper and could be short with his patients. On hearing his son’s words, he burst into tears of remorse.
During one of these meetings at Natuzza’s house, Dr. Valente heard the voice of a lawyer with whom he had been well acquainted. The lawyer spoke with a terrifying voice: “I am damned. Damned! Tell everyone to repent and make amends! How I should like to return to earth and do penance!” The souls of purgatory had a much calmer voice. The damned, on the other hand, spoke in a way that aroused fear and terror. “I am in the eternal fire—cried one damned soul—for bearing false witness, for speaking calumny, and stubbornly wallowing in sins of impurity. I scoffed at the Divine Mercy. If I had confessed my sins, Jesus would have forgiven me. Now there is no hope for me.”
Why eternal damnation?
Our entire earthly life should be a time of preparation for that ultimate moment of our life, which is death—when we meet Christ face to face without the mediation of faith. It is then that our eternity is decided: salvation or eternal destruction. What will happen to us at the moment of death?
We will experience the fullness of Christ’s love and be required to make a final decision. A “yes” said to Christ will become heaven or purgatory. A rejection of His love will become hell.
God loves and desires the salvation of all souls. Everyone is given the chance of salvation. There is no one destined for damnation. But we cannot forget that apart from God’s will to save all souls there is also our human will, which may chose to reject God and revile Him. Jesus states many times that rejection of God leads to eternal damnation; that the unrighteous will be excluded from eternal life: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:14). Those disobedient to God will hear the words: “Depart from me, you evildoers” (Matt. 7:23); “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him” (Jn 3:36). The exclusion of those who did not accept the Father’s invitation to the feast is categorical: “None of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet” (Lk 14:24). Christ’s explanation of the parable of the dragnet is not metaphorical: “The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt. 13:49-50). The Scriptures frequently speak of the absolute exclusion of the unrighteous from the Kingdom of God: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10; cf. Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:5). The above-cited verses speak of damnation in absolute terms: ‘None shall taste my banquet,’ ‘shall see life,’ ‘will inherit the kingdom of God.’
Jesus also states: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matt. 12:31-32). Blessed John Paul II explains in his encyclical Dominum et vivficantem (46) that the sin against the Holy Spirit consists in “the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit.” It is the state of closing oneself off from the love of God, the state of one who “claims the ‘right’ to persist in evil—in any sin at all—and who thus rejects Redemption.” The sin against the Holy Spirit is by its very nature unpardonable, since it is an outright rejection of Divine Mercy. It expresses itself in an attitude of absolute selfishness, i.e. a total closing off of human freedom from the love of Christ. Such an attitude takes shape in a person over the course of his entire earthly life. Every fully conscious and willful decision to commit evil wreaks terrible spiritual damage on the soul. Every unforgiven sin results in further desensitizing the soul to the love of God and destroying one’s ability to love one’s neighbor. If, throughout his entire earthly life, a person lives as though God did not exist and radically rejects the possibility of repentance, all the while calling evil good and good evil, then the objectively existing force of evil abiding in every sin can so ruin a person as to render him absolutely selfish, i.e. he loves himself with a self-love so great that he comes to hate God. This is where hell begins.
Dear readers! Let us in our daily prayers entrust the most hardened sinners to Jesus. Let us beg for their conversion. Those who reject the Ten Commandments and hold God’s love in contempt are walking a path that leads to eternal destruction. Let us not delude ourselves: “God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8). Prayer for the conversion of hardened sinners should be our daily duty. Just as Jesus prevailed upon St. Faustina to pray for sinners, so also does He prevail upon every one of us: “Tell sinners that I wait for them always, that I listen closely to the beating of their hearts. When will they beat for Me? Tell them that I speak through their guilty consciences, their failures and sufferings, through storms, and through the voice of the Church. And if they bring all My graces to naught, I grow angry with them, leave them to their own devices, and grant them what they desire” (Diary, 1728).
The Divine Love respects the freedom of His creatures, even when they choose definitively to reject God. Hell, then, is not an unforeseeable or unjust punishment. It is we, by choosing to commit sin, who take the road leading to hell. Hell exists because sin exists. Hell is nothing more that sin desired as an end, accepted as a final fulfillment, and extended into eternity. The truth about heaven, purgatory, and hell gives our earthly life an unrepeatable and dramatic exceptionality. It reminds us that when sin—our greatest misfortune—is trivialized and treated as a good, it leads us into the reality of hell.