Odds are that Pope Francis 'blew it' in the atheist comment

The odds are that Pope Francis 'blew it' in the recent comment on the atheist doing good. However lets give him the benefit of the doubt since he recently also said that Jesus cannot be found outside the Catholic Church, as St.Ignatius of Loyola understood it.

Being a Jesuit today, the pope could have assumed that an implicit and invisible for us case of an atheist being saved, is explicit and visible for him and us.So this case of an atheist being saved is an explicit exception to extra ecclesiam nulla salus and the Jesuits St.Ignatius of Loyola, St.Robert Bellarmine and St.Francis Xavier.It would also be an exception to the teachings of the past popes.

According to the Jesuit saints, an atheist needs Catholic Faith and the baptism of water for salvation (Cantate Domino, Council of Florence 1441 etc.) Pope Francis does not know any exception.

 

If practically he does not know any such case why mention it in theory?

Magisterial documents and the Jesuits saints, besides other saints, say all non Catholics need to convert and Pope Francis does not know any atheist who does not need to convert.For salvation just faith is not enough. The atheist needs Catholic Faith and the baptism of water (AG 7,CCC 846) in the present times.

Talk to a Jesuit on this subject today and the odds are ,with a straight face he will  tell you he can see an atheist saved in the present times, may be even more than one, whom he personally knows.

-Lionel Andrades
(First Saturday)

Photo: Pope Francis arrives before his his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican May 29. (CNS photo/Giampiero Sposito, Reuters)