Pope Francis: ‘I like to think of an empty hell’

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Pope Francis: ‘I like to think of an empty hell’
Pope Francis said that although 'it's not dogma,' he likes to think hell is 'empty.' Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady of Fatima very clearly attest to the reality of hell, where the devil, his angels, and 'many' souls have gone.



Pope Francis
Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Jan 15, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — In a Sunday interview on Italian television, Pope Francis said that he likes to think hell is empty. The statement reflects what Francis has said in numerous interviews previously on the subject, with famous atheist author Eugenio Scalfari in the left-wing newspaper La Repubblica.

In March 2015 Scalfari asked about people going to hell, and Pope Francis reportedly replied: “There is no punishment, but the annihilation of that soul. All the others will participate in the beatitude of living in the presence of the Father. The souls that are annihilated will not take part in that banquet; with the death of the body their journey is finished.”

Let’s take a look at Francis’ remarks yesterday. He said: “It’s not dogma, but my personal thing is, I like to think of an empty hell.”


Imagine I said I like to believe that cancer is just a myth, that no one suffers from cancer.

I couldn’t say that since it would make a liar out of the victims and the testimony of their suffering.

Hell is a reality according to Our Lord Jesus and the revelations of Our Lady of Fatima.

Those who say hell is empty make Jesus a liar and make a mockery of our faith, which teaches that the devil and his angels are in hell, and also those humans who reject Christ. Jesus also let it be known that Judas is in hell over and over again.

Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”

Luke 13:23-28: “Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few people be saved?’ He answered them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.'”

Romans 9:27-28: “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the Israelites were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved; for decisively and quickly will the Lord execute sentence upon the earth.”

John 6:70-71: “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?’ He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.”

Matthew 26:24: “The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”

John 17:12: “When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

The reality of hell and the souls of many in it was confirmed by Our Lady at Fatima when she showed the three children the vision of hell. The children said they saw people in hell.

We saw something like a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were the demons and the souls, as if they were red-hot coals, transparent and black or bronze-colored, with human forms, which floated about in the conflagration, borne by the flames which issued from it with clouds of smoke falling on all sides as sparks fall in great conflagrations without weight or equilibrium, among shrieks and groans of sorrow and despair that horrify and cause people to shudder with fear…

The devils were distinguished by horrible and loathsome forms of animals, frightful and unknown, but transparent like black coals that have turned red-hot. Frightened and as if we were appealing for help, we raised our eyes to our Lady who said with tenderness and sadness.

You saw hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If they do what I will tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace…

And in an interview from the 1950s with Father Riccardo Lombardi, an author who’d written a book questioning the existence of hell, Sister Lucia was asked about the possibility of an empty hell, and she told him, “No, Father, many are in hell.”

Sister Lucia had affirmed that three times for the priest, using the same term as Jesus to quantify the souls in hell: “Many.”