Vatican rebukes report that Pope Francis says there is no hell

Recently, a controversy about Pope Francis denying the existence of hell was stirred and has caused quite an uproar on social media. However, The Vatican on Thursday worked to set the record straight by shutting down the controversy.

The controversy started when 93-year-old Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari, the founder of La Repubblica newspaper who admitted to never using a tape recorder during interviews, published a report that he asked Francis where “bad souls” end up going and Pope Francis’ reply, according to the journalist, was that those who repent could be forgiven but those who do not, “disappear.”

Francis was reportedly quoted as saying: “they 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.”

The Vatican said the story was the result of the reporter’s “reconstruction.”

“What is reported by the author in today’s article is the result of his reconstruction, in which the literal words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted,” the Vatican says.

“No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

The agency reported that Scalfari also falsely reported that Pope Francis had made comments denying the existence of hell in 2015. “According to Catholic Church teachings, there is a hell and it is for eternity.“