In a report on December 31st, Pope Francis announced that he has not abolished sin.
According to Reuters, this claim happened when Eugenio Scalfari, an Italian intellectual who write for the leftist La Repubblica newspaper published an article saying that Francis believed that sin no longer existed because God’s mercy and forgiveness were “eternal”.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi quickly clarified the statement, and made it known Scalfari was mistaken. The claim that the Pope had abolished sin was completely wrong. According to The New York Times, The Pope frequently discusses human beings and their condition as sinners, but the statements by La Repubblica were inaccurate.
Scalfari’s reliability has been previously questioned by the Vatican. Scalfari said that he failed to use a tape recorder in his recent conversation with the Pope, and that his words in the article were based on his memory. Since Scalfari founded La Repubblica in 1976, he has frequently held private conversations with the Pope.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
