Catholics everywhere were up in arms when the Italian leftest newspaper La Repubblica reported that Pope Francis said in an interview that there was no hell. The paper quoted the Pope saying “hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of the souls of sinners exists.”

Furthermore, the paper quoted Pope Francis making other wild claims such describing creation in terms of energy and expressing pride at being called a “revolutionary.”

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke quickly denied the allegations, stating that the reporter was restructuring Pope Francis’ words.

A recent meeting between Pope Francis and Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari, 93, was a “private meeting for the occasion of Easter, however without giving him any interview,” the March 29 communique stated. In addition, the Vatican stated the pope’s words “are not cited textually.”

“What is reported by the author in today’s article is the result of his reconstruction, in which the literal words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

Scalfari is a self-proclaimed atheist and founder and former editor of the La Repubblica newspaper. This is not the first time he has been accused of misconstruing words from Pope Francis during interviews. Scalfari also falsely reported that Pope Francis had made comments denying the existence of hell in 2015.

After similar accusations were made in 2013, Scalfari admitted that the statements he attributed to Pope Francis were at least partially incorrect and “were not shared by the Pope himself.” There were no recording devices in the interview.

“I try to understand the person I am interviewing, and after that I write his answers with my own words,” Scalfari explained to Foreign Press Association of Rome. He conceded that it is therefore possible that “some of the Pope’s words I reported, were not shared by Pope Francis.”

Pope Francis has previously spoken about the existence of hell in public speeches, including at a prayer vigil in March 2014.

There he gave an address in which he said that members of the mafia should change their lives, “while there is still time, so that you do not end up in hell. That is what awaits you if you continue on this path.”

In addition, he spoke about hell in 2017 to the famed Marian shrine of Fatima.

“Our Lady foretold, and warned us about, a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures,” Francis said then. “Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to Hell.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of Catholic teaching, upholds the existence of Hell:

“The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of Hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of Hell, ‘eternal fire’.”