VIDEO: Francis "the most incompetent pope in history?"

This being Holy Week, our friend Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant, meant to post something upbeat, but couldn't ignore the statement attributed to Pope Francis by Eugenio Scalfari, the founder of La Repubblica, to the effect that there is no hell and the souls of those who die in a state of grave sin simply disappear. Here's what Mr Matt thinks about the Holy (?) Father's apparently heretical views.

Is there really no Hell? Then what are we worried about?

Just in time for the Easter Triduum, Vatican flak-catchers are scrambling to deny that sentiments attributed to Pope Francis in an interview with the founder of La Repubblica are not overt heresy. In reaction to reports that the Pontiff has denied the existence of hell, the Vatican has released a carefully worded statement that does not refute the substance of the claims.

An unsigned statement released on March 29th says (translated), "The Holy Father Francis recently received the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a private meeting for the occasion of Easter, without giving him an interview. What is reported by the author in today's article is the result of his reconstruction, in which the Pope's exact words are not cited. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the Holy Father's words."

The article referred to is "Il Papa: 'È un onore essere chiamato rivoluzionario'" ("The Pope: 'It's an honour to be called a revolutionary'"), published on March 28th. According to the newspaper, Pope Francis, in a recent conversation with his longtime friend, Eugenio Scalfari (the founder of the paper) expressly denied the existence of hell and the immortality of the human soul.

Cutting through the spin, the Vatican statement says only that the article is not a faithful transcription of the Pope's "exact words". However, the statement doesn't take issue with the basic content of the conversation. Nor does it say that the author's reconstruction of the conversation is erroneous, or does it deny that Francis said that hell does not exist.

If the substance of the conversation is reported correctly, even those Catholics who have tied themselves into pretzels defending the unorthodox ravings of Pope Bergoglio have to admit that this latest pronouncement is a huge addition to the body of heretical statements enunciated by the Holy (?) Father.

Here is a translation of the thoughts (?) attributed to Francis by Sgnr Scalfari. "They [condemned souls] are not punished. Those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls."

Such a statement is overtly heretical. The Catholic Church clearly asserts the existence of hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire". The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

And further:
The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

By contrast, what the Pope said is more like the belief of the pagan ancient Egyptians, who believed that condemned souls are devoured by the goddess Ammit and thus deprived of eternal existence. But the de-fide Dogma of the Church, is: The souls of those who die in the condition of personal grievous sin enter Hell.

Yes, that applies to me and thee, even to popes. To say that there is no Hell and that condemned souls simply "disappear", is heresy.

Footnote: The depiction of a pope being directed by the Devil to enter hell was created by the English artist and poet, William Blake, in 1794. Entitled "Lucifer and the Pope in Hell", it shows an infernal landscape, with flames to the left, and six figures partially visible, sunk in a river or mire, wound in a serpent's coils. To the right, the nude figure of Lucifer, his body covered in scales, points a spear to the left; in front of him, the figure of a pope looking right, into a smoky landscape. A typeprint may be seen in the British Museum in London.

Book review: "Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul"

If you don't believe in the afterlife -- in Heaven and Hell -- you can stop reading right now. This is not for you. But if you do believe, or even if you're just unsure, you should read Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, the latest book by Father Nicholas Gruner, "the Fatima Priest".

Father Gruner has written many short pieces -- magazine articles, papers and the like -- but this is only his second book. The first was World Enslavement or Peace, which concentrated chiefly on the Message of Our Lady of Fatima, which Father Gruner has been preaching relentlessly for nearly four decades. In Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, Father Gruner answers the question: What is the purpose of human life?

The answer, as anyone who has been properly taught the basics of the Catholic Faith should know, is that the purpose of human life is to save our immortal souls.

Sadly, fewer and fewer people -- even highly educated people, even Catholic churchmen -- actually know the Catholic Faith. They have come of age since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which blurred and distorted the clear truths of the traditional Faith handed down to us from the Apostles through the great doctors, teachers and leaders of the Church. As Father Gruner says, they have not been nourished on the solid food of the true Faith, but have been fed "the sentimental pablum of our times".

This lack of formation in Catholic truth has terrible consequences. People make decisions about crucial matters -- marriage, for instance -- based on wrong information, on false ideas. As a result, their lives become a mess -- full of confusion and disorder.

In the 50 years since Vatican II, the condition of the Church and the world has grown steadily worse. Most Catholics don't understand why so many bad things are happening in our society and in their own church. In Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul, Father Gruner argues that we can no longer rely on our Church leaders to be faithful to the immemorial truths of the Deposit of Faith. He clears away the fog that has settled over the Catholic landscape since Vatican II, and shows clearly how we can separate the things we must believe to be saved from the things -- the novelties and heresies -- we must reject.

Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul is concise, factual, and easy to read -- unlike some other "Fatimist" books. Reading it is like having a conversation with Father Gruner about what his work has meant and what he has learned over the years. One of my dear Catholic friends told me "I learned things I should have known before, which became perfectly clear to me as I read this book."

The book includes, as an appendix, the interview given by Sister Lucia, the chief seer of Fatima, to Father Augustine Fuentes, on 26 December 1957. We can see now the accuracy of her prophecy of the defections and betrayals of so many priests and nuns. Her plea is even more timely for us today than when she spoke in the last known public statement she gave before being silenced almost totally for the rest of her life.

Also worth reading is the preface by James Hanisch, who collaborated with Father Gruner in the writing of Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul. He recounts his conversation with Father Gruner in April of 2013, which led to the writing of the book.

"If only [he writes] there were a brief and simple booklet...demonstrating that the true Catholic Rule of Faith is not arbitrarily subject to the whims and fads of a 'living magisterium', and that no churchman of any rank has the 'authority' to change Revealed Truth or to undermine the good of the Church."

Now, that book is available. To get a copy, send an e-mail to info@fatima.org, or call toll-free: 1-800-263-8160. Tell them Walt sent you. And no, Walt doesn't get anything for making this recommendation. I believe Crucial Truths to Save Your Soul is a book you should read for the purpose disclosed by the title, so I'm telling you about it. Period.

All Souls Day

Today, November 2nd, is All Souls Day. It is the day when Catholics remember and pray for the souls of all the faithful departed. Please note the emphasis on "for".

We do not pray to our ancestors, but for them. Some of them are already in heaven, and we venerate them on All Saints Day, November 1st. Prayers are not needed for them, and prayers cannot hlep those in hell. Some, however, are languishing in purgatory, paying the price for their transgressions on this earth. It is for them we pray.

"It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they might be loosed from their sins." (2 Macc. 12:46)