Greetings!
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a/k/a Pope Francis, was in the news last week when he wrote a 2,500 word letter to La Repubblica stating that atheists can be forgiven and go to heaven apart from belief in Jesus. You can read the article here. Is this truly Catholic teaching? Yes. In Catholicism, one must be baptized in order to be justified and thus be fit for heaven. There are three possible Catholic baptisms: the Roman Catholic ceremony of water baptism, the Roman Catholic baptism by blood through martyrdom, and baptism by desire. The last of these three types of baptisms is the potential door to heaven for the atheist. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (846-847), we find: "Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it. 847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience--those too may achieve eternal salvation." So, as the good fairy and Jiminy Cricket advise (click to see the video), "Be a Good Boy, and Always Let Your conscience be Your Guide." Don't believe it, Pinocchio! The Good Fairy, Pope Francis, has a very long nose indeed. The truth is, the way is much more narrow than Pope Francis teaches: "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Jesus in Matt. 7:14. Covered in Christ, Dale |
