Posted on 03/29/2018 8:52:49 AM PDT by Red Badger
In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that Hell does not exist and that condemned souls just "disappear." This is a denial of the 2,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of Hell and the eternal existence of the soul.
The interview between Scalfari and the Pope was published March 28, 2018 in La Repubblica. The relevant section on Hell was translated by the highly respected web log, Rorate Caeli.
The interview is headlined, "The Pope: It is an honor to be called revolutionary." (Il Papa: “È un onore essere chiamato rivoluzionario.")
Scalfri says to the Pope, "Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me that our species will disappear in a certain moment and that God, still out of his creative force, will create new species. You have never spoken to me about the souls who died in sin and will go to hell to suffer it for eternity. You have however spoken to me of good souls, admitted to the contemplation of God. But what about bad souls? Where are they punished?"
Pope Francis says, "They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls." Painting of Jesus rejecting the Devil's temptations in the desert.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, 'eternal fire.' The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs." (1035)
The Catechism further states, "The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: 'Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.'
"Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where 'men will weep and gnash their teeth.'" (YouTube)
Pope Benedict XVI said in a 2007 sermon, “Jesus came to tell us that he wants us all in Heaven and that Hell, of which so little is said in our time, exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his love.”
As for the human soul, the Catholic Church teaches that it is eternal, immortal in countless places throughout the Catechism. One instance, "Endowed with 'a spiritual and immortal' soul, the human person is 'the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.' From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude." (1703)
In the good old days, religion’s warnings of damnation in the next life served to keep people on the straight and narrow in this one. I guess he’s seen that liberals just don’t care about that any more and doesn’t want to be seen as a finger-wagging scold.
Love my Roman Catholic Christian friends; but I don’t know how in the world any Roman Catholic can still maintain that the Pope is God’s representative on Earth.
Hello Mr. Pope, you are calling Yeshua (Jesus) a liar.
Here is where Hell is mentioned in the Bible:
Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15; 23:33;
Mark 9:43, 45, 47;
James 3:6
Matt. 11:23, 16:18;
Luke 10:15; 16:23; 12:5
Acts 2:27, 31;
1 Cor. 15:551;
2 Peter 2:4
Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14
I don’t know anything about Seventh Day Adventists......
I don’t know anything about Seventh Day Adventists......
Excuse me, Pope Francis, but, do you have a link for that?
So.. the pope is a Catholic Heretic?
Haven’t had one of these for a while.
A Direct Link........................
apparently he inhaled too many toxic vapors when he worked in a chemistry lab.
“Pope Francis: ‘There Is No Hell’”
So, popie, it’s ok to scorn women now?
Nope! He’s communist! As a Catholic, I have no use for this Pope!
Wait a couple years for the muslim invasion to reach its tipping point.
Look out your window, tell me then that there is no Hell.
Smarten up, Francis...
Although Rorate Caeli no doubt translated the article correctly, Scalfari is NOT to be trusted. While the Pope may have said this, he also may not have. In any case, the statement attributed to him is definitely heresy, but it cannot and never will be the teaching of the Catholic Church.
It’s best not to get bent out of shape over anything Pope Francis says because it accomplishes nothing. Time is better spent praying for the conversion of sinners as requested by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. That includes our own daily conversion and the conversion of the Pope.
Prepared for the devil and his angels.
Unless this is an absolutely terrible translation of the Pope’s words, it’s very disturbing news. But I don’t believe this is the first time he has articulated this weird belief of his.
In any event, it’s a personal opinion and has nothing to do with his teaching office. The pope is not an oracle dispensing infallible truths every time he opens his mouth. Infallibility is strictly defined and limited to important teachings on faith and morals, and he must be in union with the bishops of the Church when declaring them.
Is the Pope Catholic?
********************
Is this Pope Christian?
Or just visit Chicago some holiday weekend..................
I believe the 7th Day Adventists are annihilationists also.
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