What's the deal with Pope Francis telling atheists you don't have to believe in God to go to heaven?

Probably because he's read the Bible and sees that in many verses, it states that people will be judged by their deeds/works, without any mention of beliefs. Maybe you should read the book again.

Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.”

John 7:18 “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”

Revelation 22:12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Romans 2:6-8 “God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.”

Psalm 62:12 “…with you, Lord, is unfailing love; You reward everyone according to what they have done.”

Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

Simply obeying one’s conscience is not enough, and the Pope never said it was. Instead, the Pope is teaching that without the light of faith and belief in God, the only thing left for the agnostic or atheist to follow is the light of their conscience. This limited light can help a person decide between good and evil, but the light of the human conscience alone, without divine grace and the acceptance of divine revelation, is very limited. Not only is one’s conscience on its own a limited light, but that light is shaded by the influences of the secular world and distorted by individual sin and ignorance. The light of individual conscience is like a match flame in the darkened cave. It is better than nothing, but it does not compare to the full strength searchlight of God’s enlightening grace.

One can't interpret Pope Francis from a sound bite.

On May 22, Pope Francis stated: "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

That's true, isn't it, that the sacrifice of Christ redeemed us all, in the sense of providing a way of salvation? But not everyone is saved, so obviously salvation requires a response from us.

In a letter this week, Francis wrote: "Given – and this is the fundamental thing – that God's mercy has no limits, if He is approached with a sincere and repentant heart," the pope wrote, "the question for those who do not believe in God is to abide by their own conscience. There is sin, also for those who have no faith, in going against one's conscience. Listening to it and abiding by it means making up one's mind about what is good and evil."

We know the repentant robber was saved after a life of crime. But sincere repentance and following one's conscience is very difficult after a life of atheism and hating God. The Pope isn't saying it is going to happen for atheists, but only that it is within the realm of possibility.

Cheers,

Bruce

The problem is that the Pope is *not* saying that Atheists are guaranteed to go to heaven if they just follow their conscience. That is, as is usual for anything the Pope says, a dramatic oversimplification by journalists who do not really understand what is being said. Reading the entire letter he wrote, his thought process is something more like this:

1) Jesus died for everyone, including Atheists (There is an important distinction in Catholic teaching between Redemption (Jesus died for everyone's sins) and Salvation (Not everyone goes to heaven)

2) Believing in God's promise and in Jesus is a way to attain salvation, and is the best/only way we know to follow

3) God's mercy is abundant, and we cannot say what He will or will not do in any particular circumstance

4) Catholic teaching has long held that those who do not know about God through no fault of their own will not be sent to hell simply because they do not know (although in the case of Atheists in western countries, this is... a harder hurdle to pass) AS LONG AS they act in accordance to their God-given conscience.

5) Therefore, the first steps towards God must be to act to follow your conscience, even if you do not believe. There is a strong subtext in the letter that if you do this, then God will come and move in you, and you won't be an atheist for long.

6) But even if you do not convert, we cannot say that any given person has or does not have salvation (other than the saints), so it is possible that in rare cases, God may bring to heaven those who do not believe in him. That said, your odds are significantly higher if you are not sinning by not following your conscience.

If it is a British paper, they are not the best reporters on Catholic news. He was only stating Catholic belief that God saves good people. Some would say it requires invincible ignorance, which was not part of his statement, but ignoring such fine details of Catholic teaching makes for better headlines.

The bigoted attitude that anything the Pope says is binding on Catholics is false, yet is implied by those printing shocking headlines.

If the Pope misses dinner at his lodging and orders take-out chinese, these newspapers would say that Catholics may no longer eat home cooked food.

Read Romans, Chapter 2, verses 12-16

That is just what they believe: good people go to Heaven, regardless of what they believe.

I was brought up a Catholic and can verify they have been teaching that for at least 50 years.

It does make them less in-your-face. But I still do not believe!

The Pope was trying to extend an olive branch to atheists but was misquoted by American journalists. What the Pope said is that Jesus died for us all, even atheists.

It's good PR by him.

He didn't actually say what his words were taken to mean, there just is a huge demand for that kind of liberal theology because today few people think that having a different opinion nets you hell. He might genuinely have meant what his words are taken to mean though because he's not walking them back strongly, maybe he thinks he has to outmaneuver the hard-core religious by couching his words and not really saying it outright.

The pope is a very confused old man. He also thinks that he's helping the poor by telling them to have more kids and taking a stand AGAINST the use of birth control.

What's ironic is so many Xians actually believe him. eye roll