The Papacy has denied a widely credited statement to Pope Francis that hell does not exist. Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke said the report by 93 year-o
The Papacy has denied a widely credited statement to Pope Francis that hell does not exist. Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke said the report by 93 year-old Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari was not textually correct and that the Pope did not say what was credited to him. Scalfari is the founder of the left-wing daily La Repubblica and a self-professed non-believer, who has held several interviews with Pope Francis.
In the latest one, Scalfari reported the Pope as saying: “There is no hell where the souls of sinners suffer in eternity”. Francis said: “after death, the souls of people who repent are pardoned by God and join in his contemplation, but those who do not repent, and therefore cannot be pardoned, disappear. Hell does not exist – what exists is the disappearance of sinful souls,” he added.
The report quoted Francis as describing creation in terms of energy, expressing pride at being called a revolutionary, and casting doubt on the existence of Hell. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke debunked the report describing the conversation as a private meeting and Scalfari’s front-page article on Thursday quoting Francis at length as the fruit of his own reconstruction, in which the pope’s words were not cited textually, and warning that it should not be considered as a faithful transcript of the Holy Father’s words.
On the existence of Hell, Scalfari described himself asking Francis what happens to the souls of sinners, and specifically, where they are punished. He then quoted the pope as follows:
“They’re not punished. Those who repent obtain forgiveness and enter the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who don’t repent and can’t be forgiven disappear. A Hell doesn’t exist, what exists is the disappearance of sinning souls.”
Burke said the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of Catholic teaching, upholds the existence of Hell:
“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’.”
Francis himself has spoken of Hell as a real option for one’s eternal destiny on multiple occasions, including a 2017 to the famed Marian shrine of Fatima.
“Our Lady foretold, and warned us about, a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures,” Francis said then. “Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to Hell.”
