Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven... or does he?

There has been a lot of talk about Pope Francis letter to El Republica and how is shows him to be a heretic. This is especially in light of an article that appeared in the UK Independent online under the title Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven.

Let's set the context for the comments quoted. In the letter Francis writes: 'For me, faith began by meeting with Jesus. A personal meeting that touched my heart and gave a direction and a new meaning to my existence.'

He goes on to cite the scandalous authority of Jesus: 'I would say that we must face Jesus in the concrete roughness of his story, as above all told to us by the most ancient of the Gospels, the one according to Mark. We then find that the "scandal" which the word and practices of Jesus provoke around him derive from his extraordinary "authority": a word that has been certified since the Gospel according to Mark, but that is not easy to translate well into Italian. The Greek word is "exousia", which literally means "comes from being" what one is. It is not something exterior or forced, but rather something that emanates from the inside and imposes itself.'

You can read the whole text on the El Republica site in English. You'll see 'The Independent' didn't summarise very well!

He ends with 'Dear Dr. Scalfari, here I end these reflections of mine, prompted by what you wanted to tell and ask me. Please accept this as a tentative and temporary reply, but sincere and hopeful, together with the invitation that I made to walk a part of the path together. Believe me, in spite of its slowness, the infidelity, the mistakes and the sins that may have and may still be committed by those who compose the Church, it has no other sense and aim if not to live and witness Jesus: He has been sent by Abbà "to bring good news to the poor... to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour" (Luke 4: 18-19).'

The whole letter is quite long and the summary took part of one paragraph near the end totally out of context. I call that bad journalism.

The History and Future of the World in Two Minutes

Before time as we know it; God existed. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself. At some point God created all things and they were good. When He created us as humans He imparted His image into us – to be creative and to live in community with Him and with one another. The enemy was also there at the beginning and he persuaded them to turn away from the intimate relationship they had with God. Death became reality.

But God planned that He would restore creation to a harmonious relationship with its maker. First, He chose the descendants of a man named Abraham to take His message to the entire world. He promised to bless them so that they could bless all the nations of the world. But the world went three ways – some ignored God, some built rules in an attempt to appease God and a very small remnant still lived in community with Him.

Finally He sent His son called Jesus. He was like no other man before Him - He was mysteriously God in Flesh. He commissioned those who followed Him to take His message that God loves His creation and longs for an intimate relationship with us to the whole world. He called His people to live in community, that the world would see Him by their love for each other and those around them. His way was not attractive to those who loved power or wealth and oppressed others and so they killed Him. But this time it was different: Jesus had overcome the enemy. Death itself was dead!

There is an end to the story – a day with Jesus will come back and separate people into two groups, those who will live in community with God and those who will be separated from Him. At that time all things will be restored to God’s original plan.

But still the world goes three ways – some ignoring God, some building rules in an attempt to appease God and a remnant longing and hoping for the time when the end will come; for wholeness, peace and justice. Till that time we, of the remnant, are giving our lives to living out that future reality now.

[This is a response to Stan Nussbaum's challenge --
http://www.gmi.org/services/research/stans-lab/new/the-world-in-two-minutes/]