Hell is a place?
Hmm. Good point.
I'm going to have to look at his actual speech.
Pretty sure the Pope isn't espousing Annihilationism. What else do you envision Hell being, besides a "place"?
This is a poorly written, fallacious opening sentence. In fact, it's contradicted by the pope later on in the text. He says that hell is not a literal "place", but a state of existence in which man is totally and eternally seperated from God. He also doesn't say that they physically "burn" there, either. The author of this article is a moron.
The pertinent words are in the penultimate paragraph:
"E’ venuto Gesù per dirci che ci vuole tutti in Paradiso e che l’inferno, del quale poco si parla in questo nostro tempo, esiste ed è eterno per quanti chiudono il cuore al suo amore."The English translation is
"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."Nowhere in the original Italian is the word that means "place." The most common Italian words that mean place are "luogo" and "posto."