[knarf]

If this is a direct and exact quote;

"You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. “Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”

I find the third sentence strange.

"The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience."

He seems to imply that some should just be left to their conscience .. which denies the Great Commision to Go into all the world a preach, teach and baptize ... (go soul winning)

The last sentence;

"“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”

Is troublesome.

By extracting the clause;".. even for those who have no faith, .. "

We're left with sin being the result of disobeying one's conscience, which denies Romans 3:23;

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;.

We sin because we are sinners.

Sinners are in Heaven ... FORGIVEN sinners, by salvation by Grace through faith ... and THAT not of ourselves .. it is the gift of God.

God offers us a gift, we should accept it.

If we don't, we don't have it.

[El Cid]

It did come across as an odd quote. What seemed to me to be the central premise: "...God's mercy has no limit if you go to Him with a sincere and contrite heart..." (and although I won't argue the point for now, I'd say that one can only get this "sincere and contrite heart" from a heart transplant performed by the Holy Spirit) -- superseded all of the other vague, 'nice', 'wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to heaven' sounding comments.
I don't know if he was misquoted, or whether he was trying to tell people what they wanted to hear (yet, at the same time, stating that you have to go to God for mercy).