Pope Francis is once again under a global spotlight for reported comments to a journalist that conflict with 2,000-year-old Roman Catholic doctrine.This time, veteran Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist, is reporting the pope declared “hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of the souls of sinners exists.”
The Vatican immediately issued a statement claiming that what is reported in an article Thursday on the website of the Italian leftist newspaper La Repubblica is the author’s own “reconstruction” of the pope’s words, reported the Catholic News Agency.
The Holy See said Scalfari, 93, had a “private meeting for the occasion of Easter, however without giving him any interview.” ...