Let the Confusion Continue: Father Z on Salvation and Pope Francis

Pope Francis on the possibility of salvation for atheists
Posted on 23 May 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
People are sending me notes about Pope Francis’ fervorino from Mass yesterday. News outlets (and panicky emails I am getting) are suggesting that the Pope said that atheists go to heaven. HERE

Alas, we never get what the Pope actually said in its entirety. We are only getting bits and pieces as determined by someone working for either Vatican Radio or L’Osservatore Romano or… well… it’s hard to know! This is a problem. Did the newsie doing the reporting making the right selection of quotes? Is the newsie doing the reporting a theologian? We should either get everything Francis says or nothing. Moreover, the Italian accounts and the English accounts of what Francis said differ somewhat. And who knows how what Francis says in these sermonettes will ultimately be related to the Ordinary Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff? We are told that it is doesn’t form part of his magisterial teaching, but… really? They sure are being played up by the Holy See’s news agencies, aren’t they!

Back to the Pope’s sermon from 22 May.

If you go through his comments as reported, and I did, there is nothing in Pope Francis’s remarks about the possibility of atheists being saved that is not in keeping with the document Dominus Iesus.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/05/pope-francis-on-the-possibility-of-salvation-for-atheists/