Pope Francis: Hell doesn’t exist, sinners will go unpunished
The fiery afterlife you were all destined for has been put on ice by none other than Pope Francis himself. In a conversation with a 93-year-old atheist at the Vatican, Pope Francis, gave the answer to all your prayers.
“Hell doesn’t exist,” the Pontiff told Eugenio Scalfari, the founder of one of Italy’s leading newspapers. Instead, the Pope says the souls of the unrepentant will simply disappear forever and go unpunished.
‘They (sinners) are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and go among the ranks of the souls who contemplate him. But those who do not repent, and therefore cannot be forgiven, disappear,” Francis reportedly said.
Mr Scalfari’s conversation with Pope Francis is one of a series being reported in La Repubblica. They’ve already caused controversy in Italy, prompting the Vatican to clarify what Mr Scalfari has reported.
The retired journalist’s exclusive conversations with the Pope are reconstructed from memory as he doesn’t take notes or recordings.
The mercy of God has been at the heart of Francis’ five-year long pontificate. But his startling admission about the afterlife will likely cause outrage among hard line Catholics, who practise a faith based on the severity of God’s judgment.
For centuries, traditional Catholic doctrine has told followers that those who die in a state of mortal sin will land themselves in Hell’s ‘unquenchable fire’.