Vatican issues denial that Pope said ‘there is no hell’

POPE FRANCIS was at the centre of sensational claims yesterday about the afterlife, when he was quoted as saying that hell does not exist.

The Vatican swiftly acted to deny the comments and issued a statement saying no such interview had been granted with the 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 questionand-answer section at the end.

Scalfari, founder of La Repubblica newspaper, has prided himself on not taking notes and not using tape recorders during his encounters with leaders, later reconstructing the meetings to create lengthy articles.

According to Scalfari’s article in yesterday’s La Repubblica, he asked the pope where “bad souls” go and where they are punished.

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 Vatican disputed that Francis said anything of the sort that appeared in the article, saying it was “the fruit of his reconstruction” and not a “faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words”.

It was at least the third time the Vatican has issued statements distancing itself from Scalfari’s articles about the pope.

One notable occurrence took place in 2014, after which the elderly journalist claimed that the pontiff had actually abolished sin.