Cracking
“Hell doesn’t exist,” Pope Francis said in an interview with an Italian journalist.
He was talking to Eugenio Scalfari, a 93-year-old atheist and former editor of Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
It was reported he argued that unrepentant souls will simply disappear, going unpunished.
“They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and go among the ranks of the souls who contemplate him,” Francis reportedly said.
“But those who do not repent, and therefore cannot be forgiven, disappear.”
The pair have had several conversations and Scalfari, who did not record them and only has his memory as a guide, quoted the Pontiff denying Hell’s existence in a recent article for his old paper.
Francis’ remarks have been so controversial in Italy that he has been forced to clarify his position.
His pontificate has been characterised by a message based on God’s mercy rather than wrath, the severity of which many Catholics treat as sacrosanct.
Anyway, let’s not get stuck in the details. Make hay while the sun shines.
Rob that bank, cheat on your wife etc etc.
