Does the pope believe in hell?

Pat Buchanan: 'What did Christ die on the cross to save us from?'

By Pat Buchanan

(WND) “Pope Declares No Hell?”

So ran the riveting headline on the Drudge Report of Holy Thursday.

Drudge quoted this exchange, published in La Repubblica, between Pope Francis and his atheist friend, journalist Eugenio Scalfari.

Scalfari: “What about bad souls? Where are they punished?”

Bad souls “are not punished,” Pope Francis is quoted, “those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.”

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 Gen. Douglas 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.

Questions would arise as to whether Francis is a true pope.

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 he 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 Holiness?

Happy Easter!

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• Does the pope believe in hell?

Related:

• Pope Francis’ alleged remarks about Hell. Fr. Z says, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

Judas and Hell

The Vortex

(Church Militant) Monday, we showed the voice of Scripture on Judas being in Hell; yesterday we showed constant witness of the Fathers of the Church.

Today: the witness of the saints in approved private revelation, and specifically, the Church-approved revelations of God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena.

In her famous Dialogue, St. Catherine reveals the following that was told to her by God the Father:

So the despair of Judas displeased Me more and was a greater insult to My Son than his betrayal had been. Therefore, such as these are reproved for this false judgment of considering their sin to be greater than My mercy, and for this they are punished with the demons and tortured eternally with them.

Notice again the sin of Judas betraying Our Blessed Lord is not the one for which he is damned, but the despair of God’s mercy. But whatever the sin, he is damned.

From Scriptures, from Doctors and Fathers of the Church, from Church-approved private revelations of the saints — nowhere in 2000 years is there a voice in the Church declaring that Judas was saved.
And if you include Church-approved private revelations as credible sources, then there is actually a three-fold revelation of Judas being damned from each of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity: God the Father to St. Catherine; God the Son as related by the Gospel writers; and the Holy Spirit as revealed to St. Peter and recounted through inspiration in the Acts of the Apostles. Add to this the deep reflection and meditations by Popes, Doctors, and Fathers, and it is simply UN-Catholic to try and hold that Judas was saved.

And as to the objection that the Church does not teach that Judas is damned as part of official teaching — that’s a pointless objection. There are many things the Church holds that are not part of declared dogmatic teaching. Something doesn’t have to be officially declared to be true; it’s just that whatever is declared definitively is true.

Moreover, we should never look to the Church to declare anything definitively that does not bear directly on our salvation. The declaring of someone as being damned does not bear on your or my salvation.

And switching gears here to the question of private revelation, it can never contradict official Church teaching. This is one of the ways that so many fraudulent apparitions are discovered. Our Lady, or whoever the supposed vision is of, says some oddball thing, or in other cases simply never seems to say anything related to Church teaching. It’s one of the biggest reasons for totally dismissing the supposed revelations of Our Lady of Medjugorje.

Having allegedly appeared every day now for over 30 years — including many multiple appearances in the same day to some of the various seers — this means if that apparition is true, that Our Lady has appeared more than 12,000 times, day after day, with no end in sight.

In all those appearances (more than 12,000) she has never, ever —  not once — breathed a word about the worldwide slaughter of over one billion children in the womb. She has never said a word about the evil of sodomy and its quickly growing acceptance by even many Catholics. She has never breathed a word about the increase in sin, homosexuality in the clergy and so forth.

But according to the visionaries, she has said things like the differences in world religions don’t matter to God.

That is a fake apparition, regardless of how many people who have gone their have felt about it. Feelings do not make something true. The truth makes something true. The supposed visions at Medjugorje are the perfect apparition for a Church drowning in feel-good emotions. They appeal to Catholics on an emotional level, not an intellectual level, that is to say, an authentically spiritual level.

This is a fake private revelation, especially when you consider that nothing has really been revealed.

But in cases like real apparitions and private revelations such as that of God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena, not only is nothing revealed contrary to Church teaching or tradition — it all agrees with and supports already-existing tradition and teaching.

When it comes to the question of Judas, there can be no private revelation revealing he is saved because such a private revelation would stand in contradiction to close to 2000 years of well-grounded (including Scripture) belief that he is damned.

Even the early fourth-century saint of the East Ephraim said, "Judas was the treasurer of his poison [referring to Satan]; And although Satan’s form is hidden, in Judas he is totally visible. Though Satan’s history is a long one, it is summed up in the Iscariot."

The Holy Spirit inspired the prophets a thousand years before Our Lord to speak of this; Our Blessed Lord Himself spoke of this; the first Pope spoke of it; later Popes spoke of it; the Early Fathers spoke of it; later Doctors of the Church spoke of it; the saints down through the ages spoke it; private revelation spoke of it.

And of it there can be no doubt: Judas is damned.

But the effort to “say it isn’t so” still continues, with feeble attempts to deny it. One in particular has created much much confusion in people’s minds in understanding some fundamental truths of the Faith. It is the subject of tomorrow’s Vortex, and it is the attempt to say Judas had to betray Jesus in order for us to be redeemed. Not a word of truth to that.

Link:

• The Vortex: Judas and Hell

Pope suggests it’s best to be ‘honest’ and leave the Church if you don’t believe: HLI priest

By John-Henry Westen

VATICAN CITY, August 28, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his Angelus address Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Judas’ betrayal of Christ, saying that Judas’ problem was failing to leave Christ when he no longer believed – a “falsehood,” said the Pope, “which is a mark of the devil.”

“Judas,” said Pope Benedict, “could have left, as many of the disciples did; indeed, he would have left if he were honest. Instead he remained with Jesus. He did not remain because of faith, or because of love, but with the secret intention of taking vengeance on the Master.”

According to Human Life International Rome Director, Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro, the comments are very relevant to the current situation in the Catholic Church.  Msgr. Barreiro, who holds a doctorate in Dogmatic theology, told LifeSiteNews that “for those Catholics who cannot bring themselves to believe the formal teachings of the Church on life and family matters it would be more honest to leave the Church rather than betraying Her.”

But, he added, “We regret very much that the person is so inclined and we wish they would have a conversion to truly believe.”

Pope Benedict, in his remarks, drew a distinction between believing and understanding, noting that some disciples walked away from Christ because they did not believe. However, he said, even those who remained believed before they fully understood.

The HLI Rome Director commented, “Intellectual difficulty is not disobedience.”  He explained, “You might have teachings you find difficult to accept. However, (in those circumstances) it is virtuous to believe since you make a sacrifice of your own will, taking as your own the mind of the Church.”

Msgr. Barriero noted that submission of will and intellect is required when it comes to the official teachings of the Church, rather than prudential opinions.  “For example,” he said, “it is required for the teaching on abortion, but there can be legitimate differences of opinion among Catholics on how to take care of the poor.”

Giving another example, he pointed out that “while the Church can never ordain women as priests, there can be difference on how to ensure all are provided access to medical care.”

The pope concluded with a prayer asking God to “help us to believe in Jesus, as St. Peter did, and to always be sincere with Him and with all people.”

Link:

• Pope suggests it’s best to be ‘honest’ and leave the Church if you don’t believe: HLI priest