St Paul’s Basilica roof COLLAPSES after Pope forced to deny saying ‘Hell DOESN’T exist’
A LARGE section of St Paul’s Basilica had to be cordoned off by the Vatican after the roof partially collapsed above shocked worshippers, just hours after the Pope was forced to deny claiming that Hell does not exist.
By MARK CHANDLER
Express.co.uk
Fri, Mar 30, 2018
Plaster began plummeting from the ceiling as crowds gathered shortly after the Catholic leader was engulfed in a row about the existence of eternal damnation.
No one was injured in the incident near Michelangelo’s Pieta statue, but the affected area was closed off for most of Good Friday.
It comes during a difficult Easter period for the Vatican which, yesterday, slammed a well-known Italian journalist who quoted Pope Francis as saying hell does not exist.
The Vatican issued a statement after the comments spread on social media, saying they did not properly reflect what the Pope had said.
Eugenio Scalfari, 93, an avowed atheist who has struck up a friendship with the 81-year-old, met the Pope recently and wrote up a long story that included a question-and-answer section at the end.
According to Mr Scalfari’s article in Thursday’s La Repubblica, he asked the Pope where “bad souls” go and where they are punished.
He quoted the holy leader as saying: “They are not punished.
“Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear.
“A Hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”
But the Vatican said the Pope did not grant him an interview and the article “was the fruit of his reconstruction” not a “faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words”.
Mr Scalfari, the founder of Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, has prided himself on not taking notes and not using tape recorders during his encounters with leaders and later reconstructing the meetings to create lengthy articles.
The published comments led to a fierce backlash from Catholics.
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