Posted on 04/03/2018 8:36:20 AM PDT by ebb tide
Countdown to a Dire Conclusion
As of Easter Monday we have yet to receive from the Vatican, much less from Pope Francis himself, an actual denial that Francis told Eugenio Scalfari that the souls of the damned “are not punished” eternally and that “there is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.” As noted in my previous column, this is at least the second time Scalfari has quoted Francis to that effect on the pages of La Repubblica.
The “denial” issued by the Vatican Press Office tellingly fails to dispute the material accuracy of Scalfari’s quotation of the Pope, harping instead on the claim that it is not a literal, verbatim transcription. Nor does the Vatican positively declare that Francis rejects the opinion attributed to him and affirms the Church’s infallible dogmatic teaching on the eternal punishment of the damned in hell.
Moreover, as Gloria TV notes: “Scalfari produced articles after having talked to Francis in September 2013, July 2014, March 2015, November 2015 and 2016, and July 2017. Five of these articles produced Vatican denials. But these denials cannot be taken seriously as Francis keeps receiving Scalfari in order to feed him with material for new articles.”
How can anyone reasonably dispute that claim? Why indeed would Francis continue to have conversations with Scalfari, knowing they will appear in print, unless he is satisfied with the accuracy of what Scalfari has consistently presented as his opinions? What other reasonable inference is possible? Are we to infer, instead, that Francis takes some sort of perverse pleasure in having heresy put into his mouth by a lying journalist, whom not even the Vatican has been willing to accuse of lying?
One dogged defender of the indefensible has taken me to task by noting that if my views were mischaracterized by a reporter who quoted me for a proposition that is the opposite of what I believe, “Ferrara then [would] ferociously object[] to this characterization of his views.” Exactly so. And exactly what Pope Francis and the Vatican have not done in this case.
We are now in a virtual countdown to the conclusion stated by Gloria TV: “Therefore it is beyond reasonable doubt that Francis uses his inflammatory statements to Scalfari in order to sew [sic] confusion among the simple faithful and further produce conflicts and division in the Church.”
Why else has Francis himself declined to correct one jot or tittle of what Scalfari presents to the world as the opinions of Francis? Why has the Vatican failed to state, even once, that Francis rejects the numerous outrageous opinions Scalfari claims he has uttered during their conversations? Why, on the contrary, has the Vatican publishing house published two of Scalfari’s five interviews in a book of the Pope’s interviews and conversations with journalists, including the one in which Pope Francis is quoted as stating: “I believe in God. Not in a Catholic God. A Catholic God does not exist”?
As Pat Buchanan has observed regarding the latest Vatican non-denial of a quotation of Francis that Scalfari has published:
“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.”
The Vatican cannot continue to play this game of “hide the heresy” while Francis observes a studious silence regarding the heretical view on the existence of hell he is quoted by his friend as having uttered in private. We are in the final countdown to the dire conclusion that the current occupant of the Chair of Peter embraces a radical heresy (which is not even to mention the spreading heresy of moral relativism regarding the Sixth Commandment spawned by Amoris Laetitia).
The only one who can negate that conclusion is Pope Francis himself — not merely by making references to hell every now and then, as he has done in the past, but by positively repudiating the statement denying its very existence that his friend Scalfari has published as his personal view. Indeed, what Catholic in his right mind would not repudiate an heretical statement falsely attributed to him before the whole world? All the more so the very Vicar of Christ!
On that score, I can only echo the words of Chris Altieri in The Catholic Herald:
“Pope Francis must disown not only the precise verbiage Scalfari reported in his piece, but the ideas foisted upon him therein — at least the ones that are manifestly heretical. The longer he does not, the stronger the case becomes for believing he cannot.”
The Pope’s continued silence in these circumstances can mean only one thing: consent.
Ping
“these denials cannot be taken seriously as Francis keeps receiving Scalfari in order to feed him with material for new articles.”
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That’s the part I also find curious. It’s as the online warning goes, “don’t feed the trolls”.
“...The Pope’s continued silence in these circumstances can mean only one thing: consent.”
I am sorry, Mr. Ferarra, but the main countdown took place in the 60’s when hundreds of bishops apostasized by accepting the agenda and outcome of the so-called Second Vatican Council, which was designed to destroy the Catholic Church by sewing heretical ideas foreign to the Bride of Christ.
A more recent countdown is actually to see how long it takes for you to acknowledge that these past six so-called popes were not popes because they were heretics, the first being Cardinal Roncalli (ain’t John XXIII), who supported Communism and participated in Freemasonry prior to his usurpatory election.
Yes, it is, at least if I understand the meaning correctly.
The existence of Hell is documented repeatedly in sacred scripture, and is affirmed by Our Lord in the gospels.
The infallible deposit of faith (ebb tide, correct me if I'm wrong) cannot be changed by Popes. So too the teachings of the Church that are protected by the charism of infallibility.
Examples:
1) Virgin birth - infallible. Cannot be changed by a Pope.
2) Unmarried priests only - not infallible, could be changed tomorrow.
So the issue is, does Jorge Bergoglio deny an infallible teaching of the Catholic Church? I use his birth name because, if he does, he is not the Pope.
This becomes a question of some importance.
Is this still the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church? -
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“Yes, it is, at least if I understand the meaning correctly.”
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Is there some canonical official definition and/or description of the nature of Hell? I mean, where would it be found? Not being Catholic, I don’t know what law/doctrinal writing would be deferred to as “the last word” on the matter.
Ah -was able to google up what seems to be the relevant part of the Catechism dealing with Hell, among other related subjects:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm
“IV. HELL
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: “He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”
1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,”615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!”616
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.”617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”618
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where “men will weep and gnash their teeth.”619
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance”:621
Father, accept this offering
from your whole family.
Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen.622”
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