“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!!!!
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.
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.”
“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?
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).