deleted for space
That display of compassion to the dying is an incredibly strong example of the grace and mercy that testifies to Universal Reconcilation to the Father.
space saving
space saving
You accidentally tripleposted, Dick, so I deleted the first two. (They all looked identical to me on a quick scan, but I figured your last one would have all of any adjustments you had made.)
John Paul II (and his successor Benedict) were certainly very much influenced by Hans Urs Von Balthasar (a known Roman Catholic hopeful universalist, regarded as the greatest RCC systematic theologian of the 20th century); and there was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop, converted from Eastern Orthodoxy, who was a convinced universalist (and got in trouble over that) who likely also influenced his fellow Polish bishop JP2. (I’ll have to look up how to spell the other guy’s name, and get some quotes from him. Hrynziewski or something like that. I’m off-and-on reading a collection of his work right now.)
Still the two recent super-popes deserve more study as to what they believe(d) on this matter. (JP2 having died and so presumably believing more correctly now, whatever the truth may be. 
)
Regarding Leo the Great, I don’t recall if this was him but a Pope around his time caused quite an uproar when he came to believe that the pagan Roman Emperor Hadrian had been saved out of hell (thanks to the Pope’s intercessory prayers). I have a book somewhere at the house or the office (probably the house in this case) dedicated to following Medieval stories of honorable pagans, and they trace the various versions of this story through later time periods, where it became known as the Golden Legend. I’ll try to look that up–that pope never officially taught ex cathedra the salvation of non-Christians out of hell (beyond even Limbo where righteous non-Christians and infants are often regarded as living in what amounts to paradise, just without fellowship with God), but he definitely believed strongly in post-mortem salvation. Maybe he was also Leo the Great.
space saving
Julie has been on our forum before, about a year ago, and struck me as being a fairly convinced ultra-universalist.
space saving
Julie is a convicted universalist I don’t think ultra though. I asked her for some quotes. Did you want bio too? What info you looking for?
space saving
I don’t mind if you send the actual biog on Pog’s main list compilation at the start of the thread, but any random one would work just as well as an example. 
Going back to one of our earlier topics, I noticed this morning the big news is that Pope Benedict will be retiring almost immediately for declining health reasons–the first such voluntary retirement in six centuries! The RCCs should have a new Pope by the end of March. Will be curious if the new one is as sympathetic to Christian universalism as the two previous ones have been.
Och Jason - do forgive me for being a pickle 
Reports indicate that when Benedict made his announcement Monday (Rome time) the College of Cardinals was so astounded they couldn’t speak for several minutes.
This political cartoon from Joe Heller imagines their first words.
I’ve heard from a Catholic on another board that the Pope intends to retire to a monastery and live the rest of his life in prayer and study. I’m kind of jealous. 
"I may be wrong in this matter, but I am not in doubt. If indeed faith is being sure of what we hope for, then truly I am a man of faith, for I absolutely know what I hope to be true: that God is completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving, that God is doing everything possible to overcome evil (which is evidently a long and difficult task), and that God will utterly triumph in the end, despite any and all indications to the contrary.
This is my first article of faith. I required no Bible to determine it, and—honestly—I will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse that suggests otherwise.
This first article of faith was the starting point of my journey back to Jesus, and it remains the foundation of my faith. I came to trust the Bible again, of course, but only because it so clearly bears witness to the God of love I had already chosen to believe in. I especially follow the teachings of Jesus because those teachings—and his life, death, and resurrection—seem to me the best expression of the ultimate truth of God, which we Christians call grace. Indeed, these days I trust Jesus even when I don’t understand him, because I have become so convinced that he knows what he’s talking about, that he is who he says he is, and that he alone fully grasps that which I can only hope is true."
Bart Campolo
“Just as God so loved the world that he completely handed over his Son for its sake, so too the one whom God has loved will want to save himself only in conjunction with those who have been created with him, and he will not reject the share of penitential suffering that has been given him for the sake of the whole. He will do so in Christian hope, the hope for the salvation of all men, which is permitted to Christians alone. Thus, the Church is strictly enjoined to pray “for all men” (and as a result of which to see her prayer in this respect as meaningful and effective); and it is “good and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved…, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself over as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:1-6), who, raised up on the Cross “will draw all men to himself” (Jn 12:32), because he has recived there a “power over all flesh” (Jn 17:2), in order to be “a Savior of all men” (1 Tim 4:10), “in order to take away the sins of all” (Heb 9:28); “for the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men” (Tit 2:11), which is why the Church “looks to the advantage of all men, in order that they may be saved” (1 Cor 10:33). This is why Paul (Rom 5:15-21) can say that the balance between sin and grace, fear and hope, damnation and redemption, and Adam and Christ has been tilted in favor of grace, and indeed so much that (in relation to redemption) the mountain of sin stands before an inconceivable superabundance of redemption: not only have all been doomed to (the first and the second) death in Adam, while all have been freed from death in Christ, but the sins of all, which assault the innocent one and culminate in God’s murder, have brought an inexhaustible wealth of absolution down upon all. Thus: “God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32).”
–Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone Is Credible (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004)
Wonderful, wonderful quote, Allan!