Angels do have free will. Love can never be forced—if it is, then it is not love. If angels didn’t have free will, there would be no point to them. As the original answer indicated, however, their choices for good or evil are eternal. Like God, they exist outside of time and are completely made up of spirit, without bodies. (Although since the Incarnation, God also has a human body, Jesus.) Tradition tells us that because of their eternal and bodiless nature, angels had one choice to make for eternity, at the moment they were created, to either choose God or to reject him. In other words, because they exist outside of time, they do not have the capacity to repent; that’s just part of the nature of eternity. One day, we’ll be the same: once we die, we will exist in eternity, and the final choice we made in life will be our eternal choice, either for heaven or hell.
Some recommended short readings that have relevant information:
How could Lucifer have rebelled?
Why pray to angels?
Are angels beings or just symbols?
Can angels be male or female?
The angels and us (audio)
The biblical roots and roles of angels (audio)
Must we believe in angels?
Other articles
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on angels:
in the anaphora, 1352
birth of Christ and, 525, 559
Christ and, 331, 538, 954, 1038, 1161
in the Church’s life, 334-35
cosmic order and the guardianship of, 57
existence of angels as a truth of faith, 328
fallen, 391-93, 414, 760
Gabriel announcing, 148, 2676
gone astray, 311
guardian, 336
heaven and, 326, 1023-29, 1053
identity and duties of, 329, 332-36, 350-52, 1034, 1352
images in art, 1192, 2131, 2502
protectors of men, 336
Hope that helps!
- Q
