Posted on 04/16/2018 9:54:21 AM PDT by ebb tide
Pope Francis comforted a grieving child by telling him that his atheist father is in heaven.
During a visit to Rome’s deprived Corviale district on Sunday, the Pope answered questions from a group of children. One of them, a boy called Emanuele, burst into tears when he met the Pope.
After giving the child a long hug, Pope Francis asked him what was troubling him. Emanuele whispered in the Pope’s ear that his father, who was an atheist, had recently died and he was worried he could be in hell.
Pope Francis asked Emanuele for permission to tell the crowd what he had said, and then announced: “If only we could cry like Emanuele when we have pain in our hearts. He cries for his father who died and had the courage to do so in front of us because there is love in him.
“His father was an atheist, yet he had his four children baptised, he was a good man. It’s nice that a son says that about his father, that he ‘was good’. If that man was able to raise his children like that, then he was a good man. God is proud of your father.”
The Pope continued: “God has the heart of a father, your father was a good man, he is in heaven with Him, be sure. God has a father’s heart and, would God ever abandon a non-believing father who baptised his children? God was certainly proud of your father, because it is easier to be a believer and have your children baptised than to be a non-believer and have your children baptised. Pray for your father, talk to your father. That is the answer.”
“Pope Francis comforted a grieving child by telling him that his atheist father is in heaven.”
What’s telling a little kid a little White Lie if it’ll get the pontiff some Good Press? /sarcasm
I can’t fault the pope for saying that to a boy. They are comforting words. Obviously no one knows if someone is in heaven, not even the pope.
Atheists can go to heaven. Knowing which ones do, is not for man to know, but for God to know and to determine.
Betting this gets deleted.
Tearing Scripture out of The Bible to make it fit the situation.....WARNING to Christians!!!!
“Who am I to judge?!”
If I were counseling this little boy, I would tell him that God loves us. He knows each one of us. His Son, Jesus died for us to remove the guilt of our sin.
None of us knows the full heart or intentions of anyone - only God knows that. If this boy’s father ever reached out to God for forgiveness through Jesus, then that father may well be in heaven. But, only God knows and only God can judge. He is a perfectly fair and righteous judge. This is our hope.
Only Jesus can remove the guilt of our sin. I would talk to this child about his relationship with Jesus - and, that as believers, we need to share as best we can the good news of the Gospel with family and friends because none of knows when our time to leave this life will come.
I realize the pope did not have the time to go through all of this with this child. But, he could have arranged a time to meet with this boy and his family for comforting them and counseling them - if he could not personally do this, he could have arranged for a minister to call on them.
He could have hugged this child and told him that his question was a very important one and that he would like to talk to he and his family about it, but in a more private setting. I’m sure the boy’s family would have been glad to meet with the pope at any time he said.
Wrong.
He didn’t just tell this to a boy. He went public and told the crowd. Which now has gone global.
I could understand if the Pope told a lie to a boy just to comfort him.
But to tell the whole world that atheists can go to Heaven?
Wrong.
There is just so much a spin team can cover before the smell of what you are covering up peeks through the sand. I can't believe this pope will be allowed to embarrass the church for one more year, let alone till he dies. Each time he says stuff like this, we are either told we didn't understand what he said, or we are just bashing the church, or they deny he said what he plainly said.
Look on the bright side, we should be thankful Francis didn’t tell the kid: “I dunno, kid. there probably is no God. Now leave me alone.”
The problem is that this conversation should not find its way to the public. We don’t know how God will judge any individual soul. If a little boy came crying to me, telling me his father had died and that he had been an atheist and he feared his father hadn’t gone to Heaven, I’d tell him we should pray for his father’s soul. I’d say that God hears all prayers and that God exists outside of time, so he can apply those prayers retroactively. Perhaps the man cried out to God in his final moments and God saved him from Hell and now he’s in Purgatory and we can pray he moves quickly to Heaven. All of these are possible, and would be compassionate responses to a grieving child’s pleas. The problem is that this Pope makes sure the whole world hears about this exchange, so what the world is instructed is: it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God; as long as you’re a nice guy, you’ll go straight to Heaven.
Then, he could recite some of the Beatitudes, which outline who is "Blessed".
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
What a beautiful promise. It could comfort the boy's heart.
“He who believes and is baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)
Jesus says that the atheist is in Hell.
IIRC, no one but God (all three parts), the angels and saints are in Heaven yet...oh, and the repentant thief on the adjoining cross, because he was told he would be that day in Paradise. Though a day with God is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day (written to be understood by folks unable to grasp the concept of millions or billions).
The dead know nothing, until the resurrection and judgement. Come to think of it, when we’re dead, time means nothing; it will seem as if death to resurrection is instantaneous, whether it’s been ten thousand years or a few seconds.
No, I do not have a degree in theology, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Is this Pope even Catholic, or Christian at all?
Is that what you would tell a little boy who had just lost his father?
He’s progressed well beyond making it clear he’s not Catholic.
If they still die as an atheist, those atheists will not be in Heaven. Former atheists who are believers will be in Heaven.
I have read many times that a person who causes other(s) to be saved will be saved himself. Maybe this is an exception to your passage. And maybe the father was agnostic and had the kids baptized “just in case”.
all of you naysayers should see the video about Howard Storm, the atheist who went to hell, cried out to Jesus, got rescued, then sent back and he is now a paster.
The Pope spoke correctly.
Sorry, Pope Francis, you just don’t know for sure.
Today is the feast of St. Bernadette and in the movie, “The Song of Bernadette,” she says something like, oh sure, when I die (since I saw Mary) you will say saint this and saint that, while in truth I may be in purgatory suffering for hundreds of years (because no one will be praying for me).
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