If the Rosary does have value, it would appear its greatest value is in the final phrase, “pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.” Is that a plea to avoid being condemned to a dark fate in the afterlife? If so, can you comment on the belief many have, as well as fear, about going to hell?

This, indeed, is the commonest interpretation with respect to what intention people hold who are using that prayer. They are not thinking about the distinction between hell and purgatory necessarily, or between going to hell and ending up in limbo as an earthbound spirit, which is the truest meaning of purgatory. Unfortunately, these terms are rather ill‑defined because they are more metaphysical ideas and are a kind of metaphor. What one needs to understand is the realities of what can happen in the afterlife. We are on record many times in telling people quite frankly that there is no such place as hell. It is an idea that was constructed to serve as a warning about wrongdoing, committing acts of evil, that there will be consequences, there will be future suffering, and a price to be paid. If one leads a life of crime or depravity and causes great suffering to others, that does not mean they cannot return to heaven when they die. We know that anyone returning to the light will look back on their life with a full understanding they were out of alignment and will want fervently to make amends for any transgressions and will do anything they need to, to repay a karmic debt to those they have wronged, particularly in a future life as that will be the only practical way to do so. Because of that return to full awareness, condemning them to a hellish existence in such a place as thought of by the fire and brimstone imagery of the Scriptures would serve no purpose. Punishment has no value if it is relentless and unforgiving in its administration. Punishment is instructive in creating a consequence to show someone the error of their ways, that is what the Law of Karma is for, to return to the wrongdoer a future time of difficulty that represents a penalty in proportion to their own wrongdoing in the past and is to serve as an object lesson and a teaching for them to help shape their life to go in a better direction. So you need not worry about being condemned to an eternal hell. We condemn no one. You may condemn yourselves to a long period of perpetual suffering if you pass away at a time of dishevelment and non-belief and find yourselves in limbo—that is the closest to hell you can experience and it is indeed hellish and needs to be avoided at all costs.