CATHOLIC VOTE
Pope Francis on Sunday said he personally hopes that hell is empty, sparking a new round of debate about Catholic teachings on damnation.
During the popular hour-long Sunday show “Che Tempo Che Fa” with Italian journalist Fabio Fazio, Francis spoke freely about his health, his future travels, his concerns about war and immigration, and recent controversies like the one surrounding the publication of the document Fiducia Supplicans.
Asked about how he imagines hell and if he really believes God forgives everyone who asks, Francis responded: “This isn’t dogma, just my thought: I like to think of hell as being empty. I hope it is.”
The brief statement immediately spurred widespread controversy on the Internet, especially on “X,” formerly known as Twitter.
Some commentators argued that there was nothing wrong with a pope saying he wants everyone to be saved, while others expressed concern that Francis had expressed a belief that belongs to the heresy known as “Universalism.”
In an article that became controversial in its own right, Bishop Robert Barron once explained that
in the third century, Origen of Alexandria, one of the most remarkable and influential theologians in the entire tradition, formulated a teaching he termed apokatastasis(restoration). According to this doctrine, all sinners—and indeed all of the fallen angels, including Satan himself—would be, through Christ’s grace, brought to salvation in the end. There might be hellfire, Origen thought, but it cannot be everlasting, for if it were, sin would prove more powerful than grace. Well, the official church reacted against Origen’s universalism, for she saw it as insufficiently respectful of freedom, both human and angelic. If God’s grace is simply irresistible, then the real freedom to reject God’s love appears compromised.
Barron himself expressed his hope of an empty hell, however, writing: “[Is] there anyone in this state of being [hell]? We don’t know for sure. We are in fact permitted to hope and to pray that all people will finally surrender to the alluring beauty of God’s grace…
