The Salt Lake Tribune recently ran a story (March 31) entitled “Pope presides over Good Friday amid controversy.” The controversy in question had to do with a claim by journalist Eugenio Scalfari of the Italian daily “La Repubblica” that Pope Francis had said that hell does not exist.
The Vatican immediately issued a statement saying essentially that Scalfari had put words into the pope’s mouth and that the journalist (who prides himself on not taking notes) had not presented “a faithful transcription” of Francis’ words.
The truth is that the pontiff has often mentioned hell in his talks and homilies, most notably when he issued a couple of years ago a ringing denunciation of the Italian mafia, stating that if its members did not mend their ways they were destined for hell.
This is not the first time that the Vatican has distanced itself from Scalfari’s articles about the pope, including one in which the journalist said that Francis had abolished sin.
The bottom line: Pope Francis has never and could not as pope deny the existence of hell — or sin!
Msgr. M. Francis Mannion, Holladay