[Keli Kilohana]

Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

[Vendome]

“Those people must still do good”

Well, nice to know you can work your way to heaven.

Witness The Romans Road to Salvation and The three great parables of Mathew 13.

I’m shocked the Pope would say this.

[Cvengr]

where in Mark is he referencing?

[stuartcr]

Would this mean non-Christians ca go to heaven?

[pallis]

The Pope is sounding more like Wesley than Augustine, not that Wesley would condone disbelief, but there seems to be an abundance of choice and personal responsibility in the Pope’s statements.

[Mount Athos]

I’ll start out by saying that Christian religious figures are so often misquoted and represented that I wouldn’t trust this articles claims without checking.

But I want to ask what is good to an Atheist? Separated from any traditional value system or faith, “good” can mean all sorts of things.

Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot all thought they were doing “good” according to their worldview.

So for a person to tell an Atheist “just do good”, I’m worried what their idea of good will be.

Isn’t that where totalitarian dystopias come from?

[OrangeHoof]

John 14:6
New International Version (NIV)

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Funny, I see nothing in Jesus' words about doing good or being an atheist who gets saved anyway.

Ephesians 2:8-9
New International Version (NIV)

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Still nothing about being saved by works. The Lord has mercy on whom He has mercy and compassion on whom He has compassion so I will not judge who is saved and who is not, only our Savior can, but I am very disappointed in any Christian who preaches a gospel of works, thus denying the critical importance of Christ's work on the Cross.

[Duke of Milan]

Pope Francis is sounding more like the antichrist everyday.

Pope Francis said, "The root of this possibility of doing good - that we all have - is in creation."
Romans 3:11,There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

Who is right, God speaking through Paul(and Isaiah and the Prophets) or a man, the Pope, who says the opposite? He has the spirit of antichrist because he speaks as dragon.

[redgolum]

Well this is going to be an interesting thread.
Christ can save whomever he wants. If that was the point, then ok.
If it was that you don’t need God to be saved, then he just talked his way out of a job. Shut the place down and sell it off.

I suspect it was taken out of context.

[Tanniker Smith]

Pope Francis says atheists can do good and go to heaven too!

The funny thing is that I first heard this quote reported to be my an atheist (who had no reason to make this up), except that he didn't mention the part about going to heaven, probably because he has no interest in it (and doesn't believe it's there any way).

[cashless]

BZZZZTTTT. Yes, Alex. I'll take Biblical Truth for $100. The answer is “Name the pope that early in his papacy, declared that the way to heaven was by works and not the grace of God.” That would be Pope Francis the Mistake, Alex.
Right! For $100. By his assertion, no one needs Christ, God, the Virgin Mary for salvation, let alone repentance or the need to pay another red cent to get a priest to pray someone out of purgatory.
Choose again.

[Tanniker Smith]

Wow, just read the rest of the comments on this thread.
I'll be leaving this discussion now because I don't see any good coming out of it.

[william clark]

I’m of the unorthodox view that a person who’s never heard the gospel might be granted grace at judgment based on his heart (longing to know the God he hadn’t been formally introduced to); however, if a person has consciously rejected God out of human pride, I really don’t see any number of “good” works offsetting that.

[TalonDJ]

In essence he simply restated the hope of the Church that all come to know God, through His Son Jesus Christ.

Of course they can go to heaven if they come to Christ. What a stupid and disingenuous headline.

[old-ager]

This is not new doctrine. False, but not new!

[informavoracious]

The woman who was caught in adultery was forgiven by Christ. She fell at His feet drawn by His mercy and goodness. Perhaps atheist will do the same. The Pope cannot ignore that atheism is rising in the world. This is a gentle prodding to bring them to Christ, who art all good.

[Salvation]

The actual homily by Pope Francis does not even mention atheists!

Pope Francis: Suffering difficulties with patience and overcoming oppression with love

2013-05-24 1


Pope Francis: Suffering difficulties with patience and overcoming oppression with love

(Vatican Radio) “To suffer with patience and to overcome external and internal oppression with love.” That was the prayer of Pope Francis today at the Domus Sanctae Martae during Mass on the feast of Mary Help of Christians.

In his homily, Pope Francis requested two graces: “To endure with patience and to overcome with love.” These are “graces proper to a Christian.” “To suffer with patience,” he notes, “is not easy.” “It is not easy, whether the difficulties come from without, or are problems within the heart, the soul, internal problems.” But to suffer, he explained, is not simply to “bear with a difficulty.”:

“To suffer is to take the difficulty and to carry it with strength, so that the difficulty does not drag us down. To carry it with strength: this is a Christian virtue. Saint Paul says several times: Suffer [endure]. This means do not let ourselves be overcome by difficulties. This means that the Christian has the strength not to give up, to carry difficulties with strength. Carry them, but carry them with strength. It is not easy, because discouragement comes, and one has the urge to give up and say, ‘Well, come on, we’ll do what we can but no more.’ But no, it is a grace to suffer. In difficulties, we must ask for [this grace], in difficulty.”

The other grace the Pope asks for is “to overcome with love”:

“There are many ways to win, but the grace that we request today is the grace of victory with love, through love. And this is not easy. When we have external enemies that make us suffer so much: it is not easy, to win with love. There is the desire to take revenge, to turn another against him ... Love: the meekness that Jesus taught us. And that is the victory! The Apostle John tells us in the first Reading: ‘This is our victory, our faith.’ Our faith is precisely this: believing in Jesus who taught us love and taught us to love everyone. And the proof that we are in love is when we pray for our enemies.”

To pray for enemies, for those who make us suffer, the Pope continued, “is not easy.” But we are “defeated Christians” if we do not forgive enemies, and if we do not pray for them. And “we find so many sad, discouraged Christians,” he exclaimed, because “they did not have this grace of enduring with patience and overcoming with love”:

“Therefore, we ask Our Lady to give us the grace to endure with patience and overcome with love. How many people – so many old men and women - have taken this path! And it is beautiful to see them: they have that beautiful countenance, that serene happiness. They do not say much, but have a patient heart, a heart filled with love. They know what forgiveness of enemies is, they know what it is to pray for enemies. So many Christians are like that!”

The Mass was attended by employees of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications led by the president of the dicastery, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli. And, on the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and a group of priests, religious, seminarians and lay people from China also attended the ceremony. At the end of the prayers of the faithful, the Pope prayed: “For the noble Chinese people: May the Lord bless them and Our Lady keep them.” The Mass concluded with a hymn to the Virgin Mary in Chinese.

[Salvation]

Sorry, I should have known that the media would be a couple days late in not reporting the actual article about what the Pope said.

Here is the actual link: http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/22/pope_at_mass:_culture_of_encounter_is_the_foundation_of_peace/en1-694445

[PeterPrinciple]

Obama, Pelosi, Kerry and the rest ALL think they are doing good.....................

[Alex Murphy]

The Holy Father is full of surprises, born of true and faithful humility. On Wednesday he declared that all people, not just Catholics, are redeemed through Jesus, even atheists. However, he did emphasize there was a catch. Those people must still do good. In fact, it is in doing good that they are led to the One who is the Source of all that is good. In essence he simply restated the hope of the Church that all come to know God, through His Son Jesus Christ....

...The disciples, Pope Francis explained, "were a little intolerant," closed off by the idea of possessing the truth, convinced that "those who do not have the truth, cannot do good." "This was wrong... Jesus broadens the horizon." Pope Francis said, "The root of this possibility of doing good - that we all have - is in creation."

But oh, that "Catholic Online" headline....