Jovial (27 May 2013)
"Pope vs Pope "


The Catholic Church teaches that the Pope and the Church are infallible (click here for Catholic source), yet the present Pope created a problem for the believability of that doctrine by disagreeing with previous popes, making a very official statement in the process.  While proclaiming a public sermon, Pope Francis declared that even athiests can be saved if they behave well, while previous popes have declared that even Protestants will be condemned because they are not part of the official Roman Catholic Church.

Here's what Pope Francis said, as quoted in the Huffington Post on May 22nd  ,

“They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of ??possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong . . . Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation”....

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can... "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!".. 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.”

and here's what previous popes have said,

Pope Eugene IV's comments would include Protestants under the term "heretics and schismatics", as well as those belonging to The Real Catholic Church, a group that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church on various grounds.

Shalom,

Joe