Plaster in Vatican city breaks after Pope Francis says ‘hell doesn’t exist’

On March 29, 2018, the same day the Pontiff made this statement, some chunks of plaster rained down close to Michelangelo’s famed Pieta statue in St. Peter’s Basilica, according to The Christian Post.

Afterward, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke announced that no one was hurt by the falling plaster, adding that the area would be closed off temporarily.

It reopened the next day.

Pope Francis on Hell

Last week, news of the leader of the Roman Catholic church saying that hell does not exist caused a major stir.

According to Eugenio Scalfari, a 93-year-old atheist philosopher claimed that Pope Francis told him that “Hell does not exist” and that “those who do not repent and cannot, therefore, be forgiven disappear.”

According to LifeSite News, Scalfari asked the pontiff, “Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me that our species will at some point disappear and God will always create other species from His creative seed. You have never spoken to me of souls who have died in sin and go to Hell to suffer for it forever. Instead, you have spoken to me of good souls who are admitted to the contemplation of God. But the bad souls? Where are they punished?”

Francis allegedly responded, “They are not punished, those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and join the ranks of souls who contemplate Him, but those who do not repent and cannot, therefore, be forgiven disappear. Hell does not exist; the disappearance of sinful souls exists.”

The Vatican reacted by issuing a statement insisting that hell is very real.

According to the statement, this story is based on the reporter’s own “reconstruction” not ‘an accurate depiction of Francis’ words.’