"Is the Pope Catholic?" May Not Be Rhetorical Question

In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that Hell does not exist and that condemned souls just "disappear." This is a denial of the 2,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of Hell and the eternal existence of the soul.


But did he really say that? He was not recorded, and the interview was written from Scalifari's memory.


John Allen, editor of the Catholic blog Crux, said that there is “zero plausibility” that the pontiff actually said what Scalfari claims, as “Francis has a clear public record on the subject — he actually talks about Hell more frequently that any pope in recent memory, and he has never left any doubt that he regards it as a real possibility for one’s eternal destiny.”

OK, I'll give the Pope the benefit of the doubt on this one. But WHY, exactly, is the Pope giving interviews to a 92 year old atheist and communist in the first place?

And to be clear...from the Catholic Catechism:
  
1035 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, "eternal fire." The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.