On the first Holy Thursday, Judas
betrayed Christ. And of Judas the Lord said, "Woe to that man by whom the
Son of Man shall be betrayed; it were better for him if that man had never been
born."
Did the soul of Judas, and those of the monstrous evildoers of history, "just fade away," as General MacArthur said of old soldiers? If there is no hell, is not the greatest deterrent to the worst of sins removed?
What did Christ die on the cross to save us from?
If Francis made such a statement, it would be rank heresy.
Had the pope been speaking ex cathedra, as the vicar of Christ on earth, he would be contradicting 2,000 years of Catholic doctrine, rooted in the teachings of Christ himself. He would be calling into question papal infallibility, as defined in 1870 by the Vatican Council of Pius IX.
The Vatican swiftly issued a statement saying the pope had had a private conversation, not a formal interview, with his friend Scalfari.
The Vatican added: "The textual words pronounced by the pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father."
Sorry, but this will not do. This does not answer the questions the pope raised in his chat. Does hell exist? Are souls that die in mortal sin damned to hell for all eternity? Does the pope accept this belief? Is this still the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church?
However one may applaud Francis' stance on social justice, on matters of faith and morals he has called defined doctrine into question and created confusion throughout the Church he heads.
In his letter Amoris Laetitia, "The Joy of Love," the pope seemed to give approval to the receiving of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried Catholics, whose previous marriages had not been annulled, and whom the Church holds to be living in adultery.
Relying on the pope's letter, German bishops have begun to authorize the distribution of Communion to divorced and remarried couples.
Cardinal Gerhard Muller, former prefect of the Vatican office for the Doctrine of the Faith, the position once held by Pope Benedict XVI, says this contradicts Catholic doctrine as enunciated by Pope John Paul II.
Said Cardinal Muller, "No power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel nor the pope, not a council, nor a law of the bishops has the faculty to change it."
Four cardinals, including Raymond Burke of the United States, in a formal letter, asked the pope to clarify Amoris Laetitia. The pope did not, nor has he addressed the cardinals' concerns.
Indeed, when asked early in his papacy about the immorality of homosexuality, the pope parried the question, "Who am I to judge?"
But if not thee, who? Is not the judging of right and wrong part of the job description?
Nor is it only in the realm of doctrine that the pope has sown confusion among the faithful.
To legalize the underground Catholic Church in China, the pope and the Vatican have agreed to ask Catholic bishops to stand aside for bishops approved by the Communist Party that seeks tighter control of Christian faiths.
The Vatican has also agreed to approve the consecration of a bishop named by Beijing, whom Rome previously regarded as illegitimate.
The capitulation is necessary for the Catholic Church in China to survive and prosper, argues the Vatican. But what kind of church will it become, asks retired Archbishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong.
The Vatican is "selling out" the Church in China, says the archbishop: "Some say that all the effort to reach an agreement is to avoid the ecclesial schism. How ridiculous! The schism is there, in the Independent Church!"
Archbishop Zen concedes his criticism of the Communist Party and the Vatican's diplomatic efforts are causing problems in closing the rift between the underground Church and the Communist Party-sanctioned church, but makes no apology: "Am I the major obstacle in the process of reaching a deal between the Vatican and China? If that is a bad deal, I would be more than happy to be the obstacle."
There is a division inside Catholicism that is widening, between a Third World and traditional church that are growing, and a mainstream Church in Europe and here that is taking on aspects of the Anglican Church of the 20th century.
And how did that turn out, Your Unholy Heretic?
Did the soul of Judas, and those of the monstrous evildoers of history, "just fade away," as General MacArthur said of old soldiers? If there is no hell, is not the greatest deterrent to the worst of sins removed?
What did Christ die on the cross to save us from?
If Francis made such a statement, it would be rank heresy.
Had the pope been speaking ex cathedra, as the vicar of Christ on earth, he would be contradicting 2,000 years of Catholic doctrine, rooted in the teachings of Christ himself. He would be calling into question papal infallibility, as defined in 1870 by the Vatican Council of Pius IX.
The Vatican swiftly issued a statement saying the pope had had a private conversation, not a formal interview, with his friend Scalfari.
The Vatican added: "The textual words pronounced by the pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father."
Sorry, but this will not do. This does not answer the questions the pope raised in his chat. Does hell exist? Are souls that die in mortal sin damned to hell for all eternity? Does the pope accept this belief? Is this still the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church?
However one may applaud Francis' stance on social justice, on matters of faith and morals he has called defined doctrine into question and created confusion throughout the Church he heads.
In his letter Amoris Laetitia, "The Joy of Love," the pope seemed to give approval to the receiving of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried Catholics, whose previous marriages had not been annulled, and whom the Church holds to be living in adultery.
Relying on the pope's letter, German bishops have begun to authorize the distribution of Communion to divorced and remarried couples.
Cardinal Gerhard Muller, former prefect of the Vatican office for the Doctrine of the Faith, the position once held by Pope Benedict XVI, says this contradicts Catholic doctrine as enunciated by Pope John Paul II.
Said Cardinal Muller, "No power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel nor the pope, not a council, nor a law of the bishops has the faculty to change it."
Four cardinals, including Raymond Burke of the United States, in a formal letter, asked the pope to clarify Amoris Laetitia. The pope did not, nor has he addressed the cardinals' concerns.
Indeed, when asked early in his papacy about the immorality of homosexuality, the pope parried the question, "Who am I to judge?"
But if not thee, who? Is not the judging of right and wrong part of the job description?
Nor is it only in the realm of doctrine that the pope has sown confusion among the faithful.
To legalize the underground Catholic Church in China, the pope and the Vatican have agreed to ask Catholic bishops to stand aside for bishops approved by the Communist Party that seeks tighter control of Christian faiths.
The Vatican has also agreed to approve the consecration of a bishop named by Beijing, whom Rome previously regarded as illegitimate.
The capitulation is necessary for the Catholic Church in China to survive and prosper, argues the Vatican. But what kind of church will it become, asks retired Archbishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong.
The Vatican is "selling out" the Church in China, says the archbishop: "Some say that all the effort to reach an agreement is to avoid the ecclesial schism. How ridiculous! The schism is there, in the Independent Church!"
Archbishop Zen concedes his criticism of the Communist Party and the Vatican's diplomatic efforts are causing problems in closing the rift between the underground Church and the Communist Party-sanctioned church, but makes no apology: "Am I the major obstacle in the process of reaching a deal between the Vatican and China? If that is a bad deal, I would be more than happy to be the obstacle."
There is a division inside Catholicism that is widening, between a Third World and traditional church that are growing, and a mainstream Church in Europe and here that is taking on aspects of the Anglican Church of the 20th century.
And how did that turn out, Your Unholy Heretic?
The Pope's interview with Scalfari is below. By the way, if Scalfari is telling the truth then this makes the Pope a liar also for concealing his true feelings from the Roman Catholics.
In another interview with his
longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that Hell does
not exist and that condemned souls just "disappear." This is a denial
of the 2,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of Hell
and the eternal existence of the soul.
The
interview between Scalfari and the Pope was published on March 28, 2018. The
relevant section on Hell was translated by the highly respected web log, Rorate Caeli.
Scalfari
says to the Pope, "Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me
that our species will disappear in a certain moment and that God, still out of
his creative force, will create new species. You have never spoken to me about
the souls who died in sin and will go to hell to suffer it for eternity. You
have however spoken to me of good souls, admitted to the contemplation of God.
But what about bad souls? Where are they punished?"
Pope
Francis says, "They are not punished, those who repent obtain the
forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those
who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell,
there is the disappearance of sinful souls."
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.' The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation
from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was
created and for which he longs." (1035)
The Catechism further states,
"The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on
the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make
use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an
urgent call to conversion: 'Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and
the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who
find it are few.'
"Since
we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord
and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is
completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be
numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be
ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where 'men
will weep and gnash their teeth.'"
Pope Benedict XVI said in a 2007 sermon, “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.”
As for the human soul, the
Catholic Church teaches that it is eternal,
immortal in countless places throughout the Catechism.
One instance, "Endowed with 'a spiritual and immortal' soul, the
human person is 'the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own
sake.' From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude."
(1703)
* In a statement released on Mar. 29,
after Scalfari's report garnered worldwide attention, the Vatican said:
"The Holy Father Francis recently
received the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a
private meeting on the occasion of Easter, without however giving him any
interviews. What is reported by the author in today’s article [in La
Repubblica] is the result of his reconstruction, in which the textual words
pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned
article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words
of the Holy Father.
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