It’s from a few years ago, but this article continues to pop up on my facebook feed. So I’ll respond to it.
The article is entitled:
“Pope Francis Assures Atheists: You Don’t Have to Believe in God to Go to Heaven”
The main paragraph states this:
Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience… Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”
The title is deceiving. As often is the case with this pope:
a) The MSM twists his words and interprets them according to their ideology, and
b) The pope’s words themselves are distressingly ambiguous.
Let’s focus specifically on these words: “God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience… Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”
This does not say all non-believers go to heaven. The MSM jumps to its conclusion not only because their faithfulness to “progressive” dogma skews their mind’s view, but because they are not educated in moral theology. Notice the condition the pope places on receiving God’s mercy:
“…if you go to Him with a sincere and contrite heart.”
How can those obstinate in their choice of atheism go to Him with a sincere and contrite heart?
The second sentence about obeying one’s conscience is important. If one’s conscience is deformed through no fault of one’s own, then following it is still akin to following God. For the invincibly ignorant, this is one’s attempt at following Truth as they presently are able to understand it.
The third sentence is true inasmuch as when we intentionally ignore what we believe to be true and right – whether or not it is objectively true and right – we choose selfishness. That is sin.
No one goes to heaven who knowingly and freely rejects God and His grace, which consistently knocks on the door of every human heart. As for those on the journey who are genuinely confused but sincerely seek the true and the good, one could say they are seeking God without realizing it. As log as their heart is saying “Yes” they will find Him. It is the will’s “No” that shuts a person off from God, even if they have an intellectually astute understanding of Him.