What if I fear that someone I love is lost?

Defined dogma Common teaching

What the Church holds

Defined dogma Judgement belongs to God, at "the very moment of his death" (CCC 1022).
Common teaching No one on earth can see it. The Church's Eucharistic prayer has always prayed "in general for all who have fallen asleep before us" (St Cyril of Jerusalem, quoted in CCC 1371). Benedict XVI: "It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain" (Spe Salvi 48).
So pray: if they are in Purgatory, your prayer helps them; if not, "our prayer is not lost" (FAU-09).

What the saints and mystics report

Private revelation The accounts are full of last-moment salvation:

The lowest level, the witnesses say, is full of those an onlooker would have called lost (see VIII-A, The Witnesses’ Map of Purgatory).

Accounts that bear on this