Vatican pours cold water over report of no hellfire
POPE Francis was at the centre of sensational claims yesterday about the afterlife, after being quoted as saying that Hell does not exist.
However, the Vatican swiftly acted to deny the comments, which spread quickly on social media. It issued a statement saying that no such interview had been granted with the elderly Italian journalist behind the ‘scoop’.
Eugenio Scalfari (93), an avowed atheist who has struck up an intellectual friendship with Francis, met the Pope recently and wrote up a long story that included a question-and-answer section at the end.
Mr Scalfari, the founder of Italy’s ‘La Repubblica’ newspaper, has prided himself on not taking notes or using tape recorders during his encounters with leaders and later reconstructing the meetings to create lengthy articles.
According to Mr Scalfari’s article in Thursday’s ‘La Repubblica’, he asked the Pope where “bad souls” go and where they are punished.
Mr Scalfari quoted the Pope as saying: “They are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. A Hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”
The universal catechism of the Catholic Church says: “The teaching of the Catholic Church affirms the existence of Hell and its eternity.” It speaks of “eternal fire” and adds that “the chief punishment of Hell is eternal separation from God.”
The Vatican disputed that Francis said anything of the sort. It said the report was the fruit of his reconstruction” and not a “faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words”.
This was at least the third time the Vatican has issued statements distancing itself from Mr Scalfari’s articles about the Pope, including one in 2014 in which the journalist said the Pontiff had abolished sin.