Last week, Pope Francis made the surprise announcement that Atheists, a group to which I belong, could actually go to heaven! On May 22, he said:
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!
We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there. Link.That's pretty clear. Do good, and even an Atheist will go to heaven. One of my friends is a Catholic priest and when I reported to him what the Pope had said, I detected a little hint of panic in his immediate denial that it could be true.
Of course, for atheists, the idea that we will be welcomed into a non-existent heaven, by a non-existent god to spend the rest of eternity playing harps while laying on clouds among relatives we hardly knew and probably didn't like anyway, is hardly going to cause much joy.
Alas, the Pope's comments were quickly walked back:
In response to the media attention, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that people who know about the Catholic church “cannot be saved” if they “refuse to enter her or remain in her.”Yes, heaven forbid that the Catholic church even consider that mere Atheists will be allowed into their secret clubhouse. But I'm more intrigued by a Vatican spokesman correcting something said by the Pope. Isn't the Pope the top of the food chain, the big boss? How can his infallibility be contradicted by a mere spokespriest?
I guess these are interesting times in the Catholic church . . .
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