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know what concerns us, and especially that which
concerns them in a special manner, such as our
prayers addressed to them, on the other hand the
damned will remain ignorant of all that concerns
us, because they are complete strangers to the Church.

Do the Damned Have Faith?

It might be asked whether those Christians who possessed faith in this life, and who have not lost
it by apostasy or heresy, will preserve it in Hell. St. Thomas responds in the negative, for in
order to believe with a supernatural and theological faith, one must hold with a pious affection of
the will to God the revealer. This pious affection, however, is a gift of God, of which He
deprives them as well as the demons. They do, however, believe by a sort of natural faith, to which
they are forced by the evidence of external signs, though this faith in not supernatural. It is in
this sense that St. James has written that "The devils also believe and tremble" (lames 2:19),
signifying that their faith is forced and fearful.
Will the damned ever see or behold the glory of the Blessed? St. Thomas answers that at the Last
Judgment the reprobate will see the blessed in their glory, without being able to distinguish in
what it consists, solely realizing that they are enjoying an inexplicable glory. This sight will
afflict them with great sorrow, either because of a feeling of envy, or because of regret at
having lost that which they themselves could have