Pope Francis Tells Sobbing Child his Atheist Father could be in Heaven

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Hi The following is a link to a Huffington Post article which gives rise to the topic of this post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...ver-was-in-heaven_us_5ad5f549e4b016a07ea0afac

So, after reading this, my question then is what is the doctrinal basis for the Pope’s telling this child his non-believer Father could be in heaven. Considering that the father had all four of his children baptized, but was himself an atheist, would seem to disqualify him from the possibility of salvation through ignorance of the faith (i.e. Baptism by Desire). I also saw how the Pope seemed careful to make sure that he himself did not actually utter the words to declare that the boy’s father would not go to hell (he had the children around him do it), but then he affirmed what they said. So I’m really just trying to wrap my head around what just happened, and how it could have happened.

EDIT: After reading the comments here and taking another look at the article I see that the Pope was really just trying to comfort a little boy who was in a lot of pain. Also that the father, who was an atheist, had all four of his children baptized which was very unusual, it would be impossible to say what the contents of his heart were towards Christ. Perhaps he is (will be?) in heaven, only God knows
 
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I think he just wanted to comfort the child. A more adult answer would have something like “we don’t know his soul is, so we should say many prayers for him”.
hmikell7 said:
edit: I realize how difficult it would be to dash a little boy’s hopes for seeing his father again, but I can’t believe that this is what the Pope would have been doing considering the weight that his words would carry for the world’s other 1.2 billion Catholics.
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I don’t know…
 
Doesn’t seem to be the case at all from what I read. The kid told Francis his dad was an atheist, and Francis acknowledged the absolute lack of faith this man had when he died.
 
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No one could dare judge the pope for being kind better than being unkind but not everyone agrees on the wisdom of his response

Note I do not say I am wiser than the pope and I prefer not to answer for everyone or anyone who would ask me personally but this is how I think my response now. A good response would have been to say only God can judge whether he deserves not to go to heaven (which he said but then later he says all are children of God which is true also but he seems to say because of that they are all saved but I can not tell he means that) and though we believe everyone gets their full chance on earth perhaps God accepts some people he thinks did not truly reject Him and thinks were good according to their situation in the other world. We can hope for the salvation of many but we can not say we know that is truth. In fact we should emphasise accepting Jesus may be the only way to heaven otherwise we are denying christ but God is just and most loving and we should take comfort in that

Note:I am orthodox

Note: I do not judge the pope he needs wisdom from God not from men how to answer and he may be excused for his own beliefs or not only God knows
 
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I read about it on Twitter. From various sources. And I waited for someone to post how the pope did something wrong.

The pope comforted a little kid who lost his dad.

I remember years ago a women I knew had left the Church over funeral arrangements for her non practicing mother.

The pope was being pastoral to a boy who lost his dad.
 
He could most certainly be in Heaven. That is absolutely the correct answer. Both of the last two popes would have said the same thing, that his father could be in heaven right now.
 
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It’s quite simple, No one knows the fate of who is in Hell; not even the Pope except for Saints we have canonized. Of course this man could be in heaven. He had all FOUR of his children baptized. What an amazing good deed for a Father who does not believe to do. He had obvious hopes they would have belief or I imagine he would not have agreed to have Baptism done.

We can’t read hearts, and the official teaching of the Catholic Church is not ours to determine who is in hell or hot to determine, it’s in God’s hand.

God bless.
 
hmikell7 said:
Considering that the father had all four of his children baptized, but was himself an atheist, would seem to disqualify him from the possibility of salvation through ignorance of the faith (i.e. Baptism by Desire).
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That is not our decision to make. We have no idea what might have gone into making this man an atheist. It would have been completely wrong, both pastorally and doctrinally, for the Pope to have said this man went to Hell.
 
OP, if you are a Catholic, why are you getting your Catholic news from the violently anti-Catholic Huffington Post?
 
MaryT777 said:
Of course this man could be in heaven. He had all FOUR of his children baptized. What an amazing good deed for a Father who does not believe to do. He had obvious hopes they would have belief or I imagine he would not have agreed to have Baptism done.
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Yes, when you have an atheist dad doing more to bring his children to the faith than a lot of Catholic parents do, that’s certainly a point in his favor.

And as JamalChristopher said, it’s well established by several Popes that atheists could be in heaven.

I read the whole article and I do not see anything doctrinally wrong in what the Pope said. He pointed out that God decides who goes to heaven, that God makes these decisions “with the heart of a father”, that the dad appeared to be a good man and that God would be pleased with his having baptized his children. He then let everyone draw their own conclusions. Nowhere did he say “oh yes, your dad is in heaven.”

Pope Francis’ response seems to be just right to me, in view of all the circumstances. It would take a real hard-hearted Scrooge to have a problem with it.
 
Amen Bear! Folks are really quick to judge the Holy Father, even when he is doing beautiful charitable things. I suppose that the anonymity if the Internet forum leads to a greater concentration of these people. Fortunately I don’t have to hear this garbage in my day to day life away from CAF.
 
God gives us a direction, and a way to live our lives. Some people embrace him, some are lukewarm, some reject him and some are never enlightened. Only God knows what is in a person’s heart. He sees what we cannot. He knows what we do not. If, in his Mercy, he chooses to bless someone with heaven instead of hell, it is not our place to question him.

The fact is, we just don’t know who will be sent to hell, and we should never assume that we do. I think Pope Francis gave a compassionate response.
 
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We don’t know what happens in that last moment of life.
Maybe Dad converted.
We can all hope and pray for that outcome
 
God is a merciful and thorough judge. We don’t know the fate of the boys father; however, he did have his children raised in the Church. We must also remember that righteous people existed before Christ such as Noah and Abraham. My guess is that he’s in Purgatory, like many people, and he will see his children again.
 
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Folks are really quick to judge the Pope. He was merely comforting a young boy who doesn’t understand the concept of the soul.
 
Always amazed when Catholics want the cold hard truth when a bit of comfort is all people are asking for.
What does this accomplish if Francis had rather said “you’re daddy’s gonna burn?”

The kid would leave the church forever. Yet ANOTHER lost soul.
Why?
What is the purpose of cruelty?

So it’s not doctrinal, She’s a very small child, and it’s Gods call anyway.
For all we know the man could have been mentally ill.
 
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