Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium_ — Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Chapter 7, §48 (21 Nov 1964)
The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, when there will come the time of the restoration of all things. [Acts 3:21] At that time the human race as well as the entire world (the Latin here is "universusque mundus," and means the whole created cosmos-the universe) which is intimately related to man and attains to its end through him, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ. [Eph 1:10; Col 1:20; 2 Pet 3:10-13]
Christ, having been lifted up from the earth has drawn all to Himself. [Jn 12:32 Greek]
Karl Rahner (20th century Roman Catholic Priest and Theologian)
For a proper understanding of the matter, all the rules for the hermeneutics of eschatological assertions are to be observed, as must also be done in all preaching on hell. This means that what Scripture says about hell is to be interpreted in keeping with its literary character of 'threat-discourse' and hence not to be read as a preview of something which will exist some day.
--Karl Rahner, S.J., "Hell," in Sacramentum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Theology (New York: Herder and Herder, 1968-70), Vol. 3, p. 7.
"In short, we must maintain side by side and unwaveringly the truth of the omnipotence of the universal salvific will of God, the redemption of all by Christ, the duty of all men to hope for salvation, and also the true possibility of eternal loss."
-- Karl Rahner, Sacramentum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Theology, Vol. 2 (1969), p. 736.
Pope St. Paul VI
Since reconciliation means the restoration of peace both between God and man and between men themselves, it is the first fruit of redemption. Like redemption, it is universal in scope and efficacy. It reaches out to the whole of creation 'until the time of universal restoration' (Acts 3, 21), when all created things are again unified in Christ, Who is the firstborn of the risen dead (cf. Col 1, 18).
Source: https://wherepeteris.com/pope-st-paul-vis-exhortation-on-reconciliation-in-the-church/
Pope Francis
"The good Lord will save everyone — do not say this aloud."
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/full-text-pope-francis-in-flight-press-conference-from-slovakia
[Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, 20th Century Roman Catholic Priest, Theologian, a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Professor of theology, and director of the Ecumenical Institute at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Poland]
"The far-reaching plans of God cannot be thwarted or suffer a definitive defeat. I believe in, and hope for, the universal salvation and ultimate reconciliation of all rational creatures with the Creator and among themselves."
--Wacław Hryniewicz, The Spirit: The Cry of the World (Washington D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2014), p. 163.
https://www.crvp.org/publications/Series-VIII/9-Hryniewicz_master.pdf
So the demonic beings are also embraced by the divine dispensation of compassion and mercy. If the devil and demons were created by God as good and sinless, but fell away from Him by their own free will, how can one suppose that the merciful Creator will eternally reconcile himself with this perdition? No wonder, Isaac *(Isaac the Syrian) clearly opposes a dualistic conception of the coeternal existence of God and the devil, good and evil. Sin and Gehenna will be ultimately abolished, although their end is a mystery surpassing human understanding. The final outcome of the history of the created world must correspond to the beauty of the beginning and to the goodness of God. If we suppose the truly eternal punishment of sinners and demons, this would mean that the creation of the world was an enormous failure and mistake. God is able to overcome, by His goodness and beauty, every evil, even the opposition of the devil himself.
--Wacław Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Washington, D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2007), pp. 85-86.
* (Parentheses mine)
Full text available free at http://archive.org/details/challengeofourhop0000hryn — pages 84-86, borrow required.
...those who favour the hope of universal salvation are by no means the advocates of forced amnesty. Everyone will have to suffer the consequences of his or her wicked deeds. Salvation is neither necessity or compulsion; it is God's gift which has to be accepted voluntarily, with inner conviction, great reverence and gratitude. Hope dares to trust that God will not remain completely helpless in the face of human freedom, that He will finally be able to draw it towards Himself, purify and transform it thanks to His patient and boundless love. This can be achieved through suffering and torment which in human language could be termed endless, aeonic, i.e. lasting for centuries, because of it's quality and intensity, as is suggested by the Greek word aionios. A great thinker of the Early Church, Origen (died in 254 or 255), one of the propagators of hope for universal salvation, was well aware of this. He pointed many times to the ambiguity of the term aionios, used in the Bible to denote either eternity or only long duration. He regarded the punishment, termed in the Bible as "eternal," as a the sign of God’s mercy, as a cure designed to bring about improvement and conversion. God will finally manage to soften any resistance and revolt of His creatures without violating their free will. There is room for such a hope in Origen’s theology. In the light of contemporary research the condemnation of Origen's views seems highly questionable ...Origen's rehabilitation appears to be a moral obligation owed to the man who has been treated so unfairly by history.
--The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pg. 56.
Hope and compassion go inseparably together. To deepen this conviction, I would like to refer to a truly ecumenical figure who cut across all the ecclesiastical boundaries. He has been read in the East, and is today more appreciated in the West for his experiential wisdom. His name is Isaac the Syrian...Isaac's wisdom finds it's best expression when he speaks about a merciful heart: And what is a merciful heart? "It is the heart burning for the sake of the entire creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for every created thing...for his great compassion, his heart is humbled and he cannot bear to hear or see any injury or slight sorrow in creation...He even prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in his heart in the likeness of God." Mercy and humility give access to true understanding and wisdom. We may be tempted today to dismiss such an attitude as an expression of sentimentalism. But let us be honest. History shows abundantly what happens to us and our churches when they are deprived of the ethos of compassion.
--The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pgs. 37-38.
The Eschatology of Biblical statements related to hell requires a thorough reinterpretation. Apart from many warnings, the scripture also conveys astonishing words of hope for everybody, including non-believers. Who fails to realize that there are two series of texts of soteriological and eschatological character will not understand the dramatic nature of the Biblical message. This relates chiefly to the terminology describing the state of being lost and the penal terminology connected with punishment and torment. Some etymological intuitions make it possible to better understand the therapeutic, pedagogical and correctional purpose of punishment as a chance of conversion for all lost or rebelling rational beings.
--The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pg. 38.
Let us consider for a moment the extremely important expression: eis kolasin aionion. The reality of kolasis is described as an "eternal" or aeonic torment. In fact the guilty people punish themselves. The word "eternal" does not indicate a state indeed ultimate and irreversible. "The cursed" people on the Judge's left (Mt. 25, 41: kateramenoi) have to become first purified in the fire of suffering, repentance and remorse for evil deeds...The etymological intuitions included in the word kolasis itself seem to point to this possibility. The Greek Fathers, especially those who favored the hope of universal salvation and could sense well the spirit of language, understood punishment in it's therapeutic meaning. The word kolasis is derived from horticulture...It denotes pruning...Now let us connect the word kolasis, understood in the way presented above, with the adjective aionios, just as Matthew does (Matthew 25:46). This might enable a better understanding of the message of Christ's warning. What does the adjective aionios mean? In Plato's writings it meant duration that would finally come to an end. Generally, the word aionios in the Greek is not synonymous with endlessness. The meaning of this adjective has to be found in the Semitic languages. Its counterpart is the Hebrew olam, but this word has also many meanings because it is derived from the act of hiding. It may mean either eternity or simply long duration.
--The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pgs. 39-40.
Universal hope is the duty of every Christian. Traditional eschatology perceives only two ultimate possibilities: heaven or hell. It does not take into account the great synthesis of the history of the world in God. It also excludes all thoughts about the universal reconciliation of the lost creatures with God. It does not hear the voice of hope resounding in numerous biblical statements, nor does it heed the patient cry of hope which has not vanished from Christianity throughout the ages.
--Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz OMI, --The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pg, p. 61.
"Thanks to this hope, I can trust that freedom is incapable of rejecting God irrevocably, definitively, and once for all."
--Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII), p. 62.
"One who speaks of hope for universal salvation awaits with confidence the universal reconciliation, definitive victory of goodness, and ultimate harmony of the world."
--Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII), p. 12.
[Prof. Ilaria Ramelli, The leading Roman Catholic authority on Patristics and Apokatastasis (Bishop Kevin Britt Endowed Chair in Dogmatics and Christology: Graduate School of Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, affiliated with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas/Angelicum, Rome)]
"The doctrine of apokatastasis, as is found, from the New Testament to Eriugena, in many Christian texts and Patristic authors, is a Christian doctrine and is grounded in Christ."
--Prof. Ilaria Ramelli, The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis: A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena (Page 817.)
Apart from the Platonic philosophical vocabulary, which is specific to few authors, aiónios does not mean ‘eternal’; it acquires this meaning only when it refers to God, and only because the notion of eternity was included in the conception of God: for the rest, it has a wide range of meanings and its possible renderings are multiple, but it does not mean ‘eternal.’ In particular when it is associated with life or punishment, in the Bible and in Christian authors who keep themselves close to the Biblical usage, it denotes their belonging to the world to come.”
--Ilaria L. E. Ramelli and David Konstan, Terms for Eternity: Aionios and Aidios in Classical and Christian Texts, p. 238.
The council that is usually cited as that which ‘condemned Origen’ is the fifth ecumenical council, the Second Constantinopolitan Council, in 553. First of all, its ecumenicity is in fact doubtful, since it was wanted by Justinian and not by Vigilius, the bishop of Rome, or other bishops; Vigilius was even brought to Constantinople by force, by the empor's order, and moreover did not accept to declare that the council was open (Justinian had to do so.) ...in fact, Origen is not the object of any authentic anathema. And Vigilius’s documents, which were finally emanated by a council that was not wanted by him, most remarkably do not even contain Origen’s name. Origen was never formally condemned by any Christian ecumenical council.
--Prof. Ramelli, Ilaria L.E. The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis: A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena. Brill, 2013, pp. 736-737.
From the very first Christian centuries--as is clear from what I have pointed out so far--a number of Christian thinkers supported the doctrine of universal salvation. Some Platonic Church fathers--among whom we find Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Evagrius--were convinced that God alone is the Good and the Being; creatures can only participate in the Good and the Being. However, due to their free will, creatures are also capable of falling into evil (i.e. non-being). Evil has no positive existence, being no creature of God, but is a lack of Good and thus a lack of Being. Rational creatures who choose evil face spiritual death, but there is a resurrection from it thanks to Christ, the only human being without evil. By assuming all humanity in Himself, Christ abolishes evil from it. At the same time, every rational creature will have to adhere to the Good freely. Furthermore, these fathers were certain that, sooner or later, all will voluntarily adhere to the Good, because all rational creatures, whose logos is in the image of Christ--Logos, after knowing the Good with a pure and not obfuscated intellectual sight, will love it. No rational creature will be saved against it's will! Instead, what these fathers were certain of is that in the end all will want to be saved and will voluntarily adhere to the Good and be brought to God, the Good, by Christ. They based their conviction, among else, on creation, ethical intellectualism, and the work of Christ (Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection). For these authors, such as Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, the resurrection of Christ, which took place historically is also the anticipated realization of the glorious eschatological resurrection of the "body of Christ," which is all humanity (and, since Christ is the Logos, all rational creatures)...The doctrine of universal restoration and salvation is eminently Christian and is rooted in the Bible, where many passages, especially from St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles, inspired it. Other texts that were long deemed part of scripture before the canon was finally settled, such as the Apocalypse of Peter, also suggested universal salvation. Precisely because they regarded it as grounded in Scripture, most supporters of universal salvation, from church fathers to Julian of Norwich to our day, did not intend to oppose the church. Many of these, indeed, are saints, and some are martyrs, such as Pamphilus. Origen and St. Gregory of Nyssa, the main supporters of universal salvation, even elaborated this doctrine in defense of Christian orthodoxy and theodicy against the "heretics" of their day (Origen against "Gnosticism" and Marcionism, and Gregory against "Arianism"); both related the argument for universal salvation to that of the non-subordination of The Son to The Father in the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15:28. Both Origen and Gregory, and many other supporters of universal salvation down through the centuries, are clear that the salvation of all depends on Christ, and not on any metaphysical or cosmological necessity, or a necessity of any other kind. Universal Salvation as a Christian hope and a Christian doctrine consistently continued over two millennia of Christianity.
--Prof. Illaria Ramelli A Larger Hope? Universal Salvation from Christian Beginnings to Julian of Norwich. (Pages 210-211, 213-214.)
“... the apokatastasis doctrine is biblically, philosophically, and especially Christologically grounded in its patristic supporters."
--Ilaria L.E. Ramelli, Reply to Professor Michael McClymond, Theological Studies</em> 76.4 (2015): 833.
Hans Urs von Balthasar (Roman Catholic Theologian)
I do not wish to contradict anyone who, as a Christian, cannot be happy without denying the universality of hope to us so that he can be certain of his full hell: that is, after all, the view of a large number of important theologians, especially among the followers of Augustine. But, in return, I would like to request that one be permitted to hope that God's redemptive work for his creation might succeed. Certainty cannot be attained, but hope can be justified.
---Hans Urs von Balthasar Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?: With a Short Discourse on Hell (Ignatius Press, 1988), p. 187 in most printings.
Note: Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz was suported by his Bishop.
Archbishop Józef Życiński
When he visited me, he said that for him apostolic succession is also a succession of suffering, of the cross, and participating in the kenosis of God. And this is precisely Father Hryniewicz, who must be understood integrally. With such cheap sensational news claiming that Father Hryniewicz is opposing the Vatican congregation, we do him a great injustice, especially at this stage of his life which is so full of suffering.
--Życiński, Józef. Interview regarding Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz. Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna (eKAI), September 18, 2008.