See what happens when your membership starts falling off and all of the sins of the past start coming back to haunt you. You suddenly get a lot more inclusive.

YTF should I give any credence to any such imbecilic claim?

Well, that's not exactly what he actually said. This is:

Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.

“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”

I remember when this was published. This pope seems to be working hard to reform the Catholic Church in a way that is kind & tolerant. It's an answer that does not completely offend all camps of belief. (And non-belief is a belief system too.) For me, it's a welcome step in the right direction. The direction being the promotion of tolerance, kindness, & charity so that all human beings recognize that all living things are worthy of respect & love. Peace out my angry friends.

Silly question...has he read the Bible?

Just one man's unsubstantiated unqualified opinion.

I oft hate news nowadays, they love the catchy headline even if it is false. That is not what he said . . .
Rather he is painting the entire world into the Catholic paradigm by assertion.

"Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”

Thus God is falsely equated to the human sense of right and wrong and sin is asserted for all, thus painting the world into his Catholic worldview.

Not a liberal position at all, just great spin by both the pope and the press.

You don't have to believe in life after death to not go to heaven.

Give him credit, he's no Evangelical 'born again' wingnut.
Catholics (I was one) have always been more rational than the thumpers, for instance never (in my lifetime anyway) insisting on a literal interpretation of the bible...
Not that I'm not ecstatic not being one anymore!
On the other hand, there IS still that 'hell' thing...is he going to convert that into a prison you can get out of when you've served your sentence?
Now THAT would be progress!

To which I answer, "You don't have to believe in money to control the wealth of the Catholic Church!"

It sounds like he's breaking with tradition and suggesting that the Christian God might not actually be a total a-hole. If this reduces the level of anger towards people like us and others that differ, it could be an important step towards more peaceful coexistence.

We knew that.

For propaganda purposes so people can say, what a great and tolerant pope this one is.

I have a suspicion that a great number of higher ranked members of the Catholic church are non-believers. So this would be a great way to cover one's ass.

Also, this directly contradicts the bible.

Well isn't that special? I know I'll sleep better tonight. /snark

If I wind up in Heaven after everything I've done and said against Gawd and religion, then St. Peter is seriously mismanaging things at the Pearly Gates.

why is it only the Pope and preachers get the memo from god. You’d think if he can create the universe he’d be able to send it to each one of us individually

And so sayeth the P.O.P.E. ( aka Protector Of Paedophile Employees), head of the Biggest Nest of Rock-spiders in the world.

Methinks Wankey Frankie has been at the Sacramental wine a wee bit too often yet again.

i think the message was maybe as much for "believers" as atheists

Well, I'll be damned! Or not.

fJust goes to show how hypocritical religion is.....surely if there is no God there is no heaven....what a load of rubbish.!

Hell yeah! I am saved! The Pope said that unbelievers can be saved if they follow their consciouness. I did and admitted that I was an atheist. Kinda don't think that is what he had in mind. None the less I am SAVED!

That's good to know. I suppose it goes a little way toward legitimising non-belief in the eyes of some believers. But it does little directly for atheists, since we don't believe in heaven or hell anyway. Perhaps it may give some believers pause when the fanatics in their ranks begin the next wave of persecution. Again, This Pope's words will probably not matter. (Especially since there is an emeritus Pope who does not see eye-to-eye with Francis.) The religious moderates will sit on their hands, keeping mum lest they themselves be labelled apostates, and the blood will flow.

Kind of defeats their whole Pascal's wager argument doesn't it?

I know that there are many things that the catholic hierarchy say that the bible should be taken allegorically, that saying/thinking is that this verse actually means the opposite of what it says, yet one of their biggest literal things is that you are actually practicing cannibalism by the bread and wine actually being transformed into the body and blood of jesus. They also ignore/take allegorically they supposed saying of jesus about not using prayer in vain repetition allegorically.