Why is this man smiling?
In an hour-long TV interview recently, Pope Francis I said, “I like to think of Hell as empty” (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-francis-i-like-to-think-of-hell-as-empty). He hastened to add that this was not Church doctrine, but “my own personal view.”
Hey, open up the gates and let ’em out! Jack the Ripper, Mao Tse-tung, Tamerlane, Karl Marx, Margaret Sanger, the whole gang–hey, all you fellows, come on up to Heaven! Or go back up to Earth and pick up where you left off, before you were so rudely interrupted. Hurry! I don’t know how long my personal opinion will trump Church doctrine!
Yogi Berra said, “Nobody goes there, it’s too crowded.” Is this what the Pope was thinking of? Like maybe they ran out of room down there?
Back in 2017 Pope Francis warned Mafia kingpins that they could wind up in Hell if they didn’t repent and change their ways. Seems he’s changed his tune. Why try to be good, why repent, if you’re booked for Paradise no matter what? But this is playground theology.
And maybe a playground pope.
