Happy Easter! Oh, and the Pope DOES believe in Hell.

By Tom Quiner

Here’s the Good News: Jesus Christ has risen today! Alleluia!

Here’s the Bad news: Hell exists.

As you’ve probably heard, Pope Francis managed to create a little stir this past week in an interview where he supposedly claimed hell doesn’t exist.

The source for this heretical claim comes from a 94 year old atheist, Eugenio Scalfari, who has no transcript of the interview. Rather, Mr. Scalfari jotted the Pope’s remarks down on paper to the best of his 94 year old memory.

There is no question that Pope Francis has a gift for the provocative. But it seems like this latest provocation is another media-magnified dust-up, especially in light of Francis’ previous assertions that hell is real. Talking to victims of the Italian mafioso in 2014, he said:

“This life that you live will not give you joy or happiness. Convert, there is time before you finish up in hell, which is what awaits unless you change path.”

“In hell.” That suggests a place, which is the Catholic teaching on hell.

And in a homily a couple of years ago, he said:

“I remember as a child, when we went to catechism we were taught four things: death, judgement, hell or glory.  After the judgement there is this possibility. ‘But Father, this is to frighten us…’ ‘No, this is the truth because if you do not take care of your heart, because the Lord is with you and (if) you always live estranged from the Lord, perhaps there is the danger, the danger of continuing to live estranged in this way from the Lord for eternity.’ And this is a terrible thing!”

What is hell but eternal separation from God, who is love? The Pope made it clear that this ‘separation’ (a living hell, so to speak) is a terrible thing, very much in line with Church teachings.

If there wasn’t a hell, why would Jesus have gone through hell to save us?

He did. We’re saved. Through His sacrificial Love, an eternity in paradise awaits those who in faith believe in the resurrection.

Alleluia! He has risen!