[Mrs. Don-o]

Oh, my dear Ebb tide, you've been punked by a parody. The quotes about Pope Francis denying hell, denying the existence of Adam and Eve, saying all religions are true, etc. come from a satirical blog written by Erik Thorson, called Diversity Chronicle

It's been recycled through other humor and satire sites, inluding the "Entertainment" section of VacancyNigerians.com.

shall we say, Then it got picked up by --- other parties who should have known better --- who didn't fact-check it, but ran it s eye-popping, click-baiting straight news. ("Too good to verify" as Fan Rather might say.)

Refere4nce>Source Links

I do not deny that Pope Francis has said a lot of perplexing and dubious things, but always by way of elision and equivocation --- these are bad enough. Ambiguity, confusion, and insinuation are dangerous to the faith and aggravating as all hell. But they are not positive statements of doctrinal heresy.

[ebb tide]

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Bergoglio granted an interview to an atheist editor where Bergoglio denied the existence of Hell. It was posted, after Bergoglio’s personal review, twice on the Vatican’s website before finally being removed with no explanation.

Don’t you dare imply I’m quoting the resources you that you claim in your post.

[marshmallow]

The Pope's controversial comments on hell have nothing to do with the Diversity Chronicle. There may well be a spoof which has its origins with that publication but it is not one and the same as the other comments which were reportedly made during one of the Pope's "conversations" with the Italian atheist Eugenio Scalfari.

Although the transcript of that conversation is not visible on any Vatican website, it is certainly visible on the website of La Republica (in Italian, of course). HERE it is.

And here is the passage in question:

Che cosa accade a quell'anima spenta? Sarà punita? E come?

La riposta di Francesco è netta e chiara: non c'è punizione ma l'annullamento di quell'anima. Tutte le altre partecipano alla beatitudine di vivere in presenza del Padre. Le anime annullate non fanno parte di quel convito, con la morte del corpo il loro percorso è finito e questa è la motivazione della Chiesa missionaria: salvare i perduti. Ed è anche la ragione per cui Francesco è gesuita fino in fondo.

And the English translation?

“What happens to that lost soul? Will it be punished? And how?

The response of Francis is distinct and clear: there is no punishment, but the annihilation of that soul. All the others will participate in the beatitude of living in the presence of the Father. The souls that are annihilated will not take part in that banquet; with the death of the body their journey is finished.”

Now....in fairness to Francis, it must be remembered that Scalfari does not takes notes and regurgitates the whole thing from memory, so there's certainly that to consider....

But even so, could Scalfari have Francis' words that wrong and twisted.....??