A pastor at a Virginia megachurch expressed disagreement with Pope Francis for the way the pontiff handled a question from a crying boy who asked him whether his atheist father is in Heaven.
The exchange between Francis and the young boy, Emanuele, took place in April at the Vatican when the pope was meeting with parishioners of St. Paul of the Cross before celebrating Mass.
The crying boy whispered a question to Francis, who then repeated it before the audience: “A short time ago, my dad died. He was an atheist, but he had all four of his children baptized. He was a good man. Is Dad in heaven?”
Francis said as part of his answer that it is a “beautiful” thing for a son to call his father “good.”
The Roman Catholic Church leader then praised the unnamed father for baptizing his childen even though he himself wasn’t a believer, and added: “God is the one who decides who goes to Heaven. But how does God’s heart react to a Dad like that? How? What do you think? … A dad’s heart! God has the heart of a father.
“And faced with a dad, a nonbeliever, who was able to have his children baptized and to give them that courage, do you think that God would be…
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