What happens when Pope Francis pushes "the limits of his office"?
"So a lot of the drama of the Francis pontificate… bishops and theologians arguing with each other, cardinals challenging the pope and so on, reflects what happens, this fascinating thing, when a pope sets out to push the limits of his office," [Russ] Douthat [of the New York Times] said.In his book, Douthat, a Catholic himself, compares Rome under Pope Francis to that of Washington, D.C., under President Trump: "a paranoid jumpy place, full of ferment and uncertainty."
"I want to be clear. I'm not drawing any kind of moral comparison between the Holy Father and President Trump. The comparison is more of their role within their respective institutions. Both of them have entered institutions, the U.S. government and the church of Rome, that have major credibility problems that are sort of creaking and straining under the pressures of modernity," Douthat said.
As Pope Francis returns us to the speculative theology of the 1970's, I remember a discussion we had in one of our seminary classes in the late 70's about hell. Certainly God wouldn't condemn anyone to be as though they are on fire for an eternity.
Thus, the only loving, logical solution is that those who die in unrepentant mortal sin and do so with full consent of the will (which only God can judge at their personal judgement) cease to exist--they are dead for an eternity.
But what about the soul and its immortality????????????? Is there a heresy in this sentimental speculation called theology? Is this just another case of how the theology of limbo came about?
And thus we have this to be purported to have been said by His Holiness, Pope Francis I:
[Scalfari:] Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me that our species will disappear in a certain moment and that God, still out of his creative force, will create new species. You have never spoken to me about the souls who died in sin and will go to hell to suffer it for eternity. You have however spoken to me of good souls, admitted to the contemplation of God. But what about bad souls? Where are they punished?
UGH![Francis:] "They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls."
To avoid any hint of neo-Gnosticism, which it appears is present in this opinion offered by Pope Francis, we need to turn to the Catechism of the Catholic Church which I copy from the Vatican website. It clearly teaches that the soul is "immortal" and certainly this implies that it cannot cease to exist:
1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification594 or immediately,595 -- or immediate and everlasting damnation.596
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."610 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.611 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.612 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"613 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"614
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."615 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."616
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."617
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;618 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":619
from your whole family.
3 comments:
Is this an indisputable counterexample to the naive supposition that a pope cannot spout heresy?
I guess the "catholic" author prefers a criminal government like that of Abortion King Obama.I am not a fan of Pope Francis but comparing him to civil leaders is silly.
I have heard this sort of thing before, from a pulpit. It was associated with the related idea that everyone gets to heaven since we essentially continue spiritual growth in the afterlife. A sort of Hinduism edited by Goethe. The problem, it seems to me, is that it leads to a validation of Luthur and a presumption of Grace. God must prove Himself and we can force Him to because He has turned over a New Covenant of Love. We have to reject the Word itself, and what He said, to get to this. This is more than heresy; it is evil.
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