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BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: Even Judas? Rethinking sin, despair and divine mercy this Palm Sunday

St. Pope John Paul II insisted that the Church has never made a definitive statement regarding whether any particular person is in hell

By Bishop Robert Barron Fox News

Published March 29, 2026 7:00am EDT

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Every year on Palm Sunday, we read, in the Catholic liturgy, one of the great Passion narratives from the Synoptic Gospels. This year, it is St. Matthew's. There are a number of distinctive features in Matthew's account, but the most distinctive and interesting, for me, is the evangelist's treatment of Judas.

No other Gospel stresses the repentance and regret of the traitor more effectively. "Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, deeply regretted what he had done. He returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, 'I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.'" This is not callous indifference or self-justification. This is a clear and honest admission of guilt.

Then we are told that Judas flung the money into the temple and "went off and hanged himself." An awful ending to a sad life, the betrayer of Jesus falling into despair and committing self-slaughter. And this is why most figures in the great theological and spiritual tradition have assumed that Judas is in hell. Augustine thought so; Aquinas thought so; Dante depicted him perpetually chewed in the very mouth of Satan. And if his betrayal of the Lord wasn't enough to earn him a place in hell, then his suicide, most........

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