Pope Francis has died

Last year, an interviewer asked Francis how he envisages hell. His response stayed with me: “It’s difficult to imagine it. What I would say is not a dogma of faith, but my personal thought: I like to think hell is empty; I hope it is.”

It is impossible to reconcile the idea of an omnipotent god that is simultaneously good and permits people to be tortured for eternity.

Perhaps he chose the “god is good” over the “god, despite being able, will not prevent billions of reasonable and decent people from suffering eternally” fork in the road. You can’t logically choose both, and if you’re the pope, you probably had better have a belief in the goodness of god.

People often think of hell as an active punishment form God, but for us humans it's not.

Hell, whatever it is, is where people end up when they'd rather be there than be with Christ.

God will never force you to love Him and accept Him. He gives you the choice, the rest is up to you.