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In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.

Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.

“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.” 

Robert Mickens, the Vatican correspondent for the Catholic journal The Tablet, said the pontiff’s comments were further evidence of his attempts to shake off the Catholic Church’s fusty image, reinforced by his extremely conservative predecessor Benedict XVI. “Francis is a still a conservative,” said Mr Mickens. “But what this is all about is him seeking to have a more meaningful dialogue with the world.” 

In a welcoming response to the letter, Mr Scalfari said the Pope’s comments were “further evidence of his ability and desire to overcome barriers in dialogue with all”.

In July, Francis signalled a more progressive attitude on sexuality, asking: “If someone is gay and is looking for the Lord, who am I to judge him?”

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A reader of this Blog sent me the above portion of an article from an unknown periodical or blog.  She also wrote the following to me:

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I can’t imagine a pope making a statement like this.  It is causing

me untold heartache.  I can understand this concept before the

establishment of the New Covenant, but in today’s world, for

someone to be invincibly ignorant of Christianity, with no means
of overcoming their ignorance is really quite a stretch.

 
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I can understand my correspondent’s shock on reading Pope Francis’ statement to the Italian journalist and I am confident that many others experienced the same reaction and so I decided that rather than answer her privately I would post this on my Blog form everyone to read.

Like many others I am uneasy with Pope Francis’ seemingly offhand remarks to the media on controversial subjects.  I know of no pope in the past who has indulged in such a practice.  On the contrary, Popes have confined their casual remarks to those few occasions when it seemed impossible not to answer questions of the press that were sometimes obviously a trap to capture a controversial statement by the pope such as when the pope is on a transcontinental flight and goes to the rear of the airplane to greet the media people.

It was on such occasions that Blessed Pope Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI made their comments about condoms and aids. While obviously these popes, like Pope Francis, see value in being open with the media, but unfortunately the media has it own agenda and that agenda is frequently hostile and opposed to the  agenda of the Church.  Let me begin by clearing any misconceptions about papal infallability.

A pope enjoys absolute infallibility, that is, the guarantee of the assistance of the Holy Spirit to avoid error, only when the pope teaches the universal Church in a solemn manner (ex cathedra) on matters of faith and morals after extensive study and consultation with the episcopal college.  A pope enjoys little or no infallibility when he speaks otherwise.  It should be obvious then that a pope’s offhand response to a question from a reporter should be his impromptu opinion on the subject.  Unfortunately, when the question he is responding to is loaded with the potential for controversy, one can count on the media to exploit the pope’s response in a way that will cause confusion and consternation for faithful Cathholics.

Such was the case with Pope Francis’ answer that he could not judge homosexuals.  Any Catholic familiar with the teaching of the Church on the subject of homosexuality would immediately have understood that the Pope was referring to the human respect one must give everyone regardless of their sexual orientation and that he was not referring to homosexual acts which are sinful and are to be condemned.  But of course the LGBT activists immediately exploited the Pope’s answer as an expression of tolerance of homosexual activity.

Similarly, Pope Francis’ answer to the question about atheists was correct, but it assumed a knowledge of the Church’s teaching on the subject.  The Church teaches that anyone and everyone who seeks in their heart to know Jesus Christ with a clear conscience can receive the grace necessary for the initial gift of grace that can produce either an instantanteous conversion (e.g. Saint Paul) or a slow and painful process of spiritual growth that can take a lifetime to complete.  There have been enough testimonials written by former atheists for us to know that this is so.

The problem for atheists is the state of their conscience.  Judging from the public ravings and ranting of some of the contemporary atheists who love the media spotlight, is that they have blinded themselves.  Saint Paul teaches us that God has revealed himself through nature, through the prophets, through Jesus Christ and through his Church.  Even though some atheists live in the world constantly exposed to this revelation of God  they choose to blind themselves and not see and not hear the divine revelation.

Pope Francis’ answer to the editor’s question was correct, but I am not sure that such a simple answer to a very complex problem for atheists accomplished more good than the harm it did to both a lot of atheists and a lot of faithful Catholics.