CV NEWS FEED // 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.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 1035) explains that “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.”
The Catechism also explains (1037) that
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance”.
Francis has on several occasions expressed the belief that hell exists, that it is eternal, and that humans, including Catholics, can end up in it. His most explicit comment to that effect was in his 2016 Lenten message:
The danger always remains that by a constant refusal to open the doors of their hearts to Christ who knocks on them in the poor, the proud, rich and powerful will end up condemning themselves and plunging into the eternal abyss of solitude which is hell.
Commenting on the pope’s Sunday remark, Crisis Magazine Editor-in-Chief Eric Sammons argued that “a hope that Hell is empty has a huge impact on how we live as Catholics.”
“This, in my mind, is the more important question, rather than more endless debates on the orthodoxy of the pope’s off-the-cuff statement,” Sammons continued:
Jesus, in fact, talked more about Hell than he did about Heaven. Why bother if no one is going there? In fact, if Hell is in fact empty, that makes Jesus a deceiver, for his words assume people have gone—and will continue to go—there.
So we can see that Pope Francis’s hope that Hell is empty is not harmless wishful thinking. It leads people away from a serious practice of the faith, and it leads them away from bringing others to a serious practice of the faith.
During the Sunday interview, the Italian journalist asked Francis why he constantly asks people to pray for him.
“Because I’m a sinner and I need God’s help to remain faithful to the vocation he has given me,” the pontiff responded:
The Lord called me to be a priest, a bishop. As a bishop, I have a great responsibility in the Church. I recognize my weaknesses, which is why I must ask for prayers, that everyone pray that I remain faithful in serving the Lord, that I don’t end up with the attitude of a mediocre shepherd who does not take care of his flock.
The pope then jokingly added: “Please, pray in favor, not against!”