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One of the truly bizarre things about this (and there are many) is that Pope Francis just told the Lutherans in, I think, Sweden, that Luther was perfectly right that one is saved by Faith Alone.

Now he's telling this poor suffering boy that one is saved by "being good" and No Faith Whatsoever.

He's also said, famously, "Who am I to judge?" -- but on the ONE topic he cannot make a judgment on --- another person's eternal destiny --- he has no problem doing an on-the-spot instant canonization.

In this situation --- weeping, grieving boy; audience of little children; and the world world listening via the media --- he could have just said,

"The one thing I know for certain, is that God loves all the world; and your father's soul is in the hands of a Savior who wishes to save and always judges fairly.
"Children, will God judge fairly?"
"YES!"
"Children, is God good and merciful?"
"YES!"
"Children, is Emaneuele's father in good hands?"
"YES!"
"This is why we must always repent of our sins, and return to the embrace of Our Heavenly Father. Remember to pray for sinners."

-- and then he needn't have made a judgment (which he isn't qualified to make anyway) about the eternal destination of Emanuele's father's soul. If the dad turned to the Lord in the end like the Good Thief on the Cross, he is heaven-bound. If not, not. But this would not be the time or the place to speculate him in front of the weeping boy.

RE: One of the truly bizarre things about this (and there are many) is that Pope Francis just told the Lutherans in, I think, Sweden, that Luther was perfectly right that one is saved by Faith Alone.

Well, if he really said this, then it’s too bad he wasn’t Pope during Luther’s time. This could have spared us the Protestant Reformation.