In the past few days, the BBC magazine has had an interesting article on whether there are more people living than dead. The author, and here is the link, notes that Kubrick in his book, which I read only once, puts this statistic in his story. "Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."
Wesley Stephenson, the author of the article writes that now, in 2012, there are 19 dead people, or "ghosts" for every living person. This is astounding. As one who daily prays for the souls in Purgatory, this was a shocker. I assumed the opposite.
We do not have to believe in private revelations, but here are the three children, two on their way to canonization, who saw Hell.
This statistic might not mean much to some who read this blog, but it does for me, I need to pray more for the dead. How many souls are in Purgatory? How many in Heaven? How many in Hell? And, yes, contrary to some theologians and priests in America, in seminaries, and elsewhere, there is a Hell and there are souls there, forever. Pray, fast, pray.