With all due respect, I do not believe that the speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, necessarily implies that he is a Balthasarian or that he supports any form of “Hopeful Universalism”.
He simply stated that he likes to think of hell as being empty; we, as Christians, must exercise charity towards our neighbors, which includes the desire for them to be saved, however, no one is excluded from such charity, so we must desire the salvation of everyone.
This does not mean that everyone will be saved, because at the end of the day, God did everything possible for everyone's salvation, even to the point of emptying Himself of His Divinity and taking the form of a humble servant, but the sinner can decide to resist until the end, and continue to spit in the face of Christ.
Pope Francis has often stated that hell is a real possibility, and has even urged members of the mafia to repent, stating that there is still time not to end up in hell, and he states that there is a sin that cannot be forgiven, that of corruption, and the reason for this is quite simple: someone cannot be forgiven if they do not desire forgiveness.
Of course, the speech that was made was extremely brief and could have been much more elaborate, however, the conclusion that the Holy Father was granting Baltashar's theological views is a stretch.
With all due respect, I do not believe that the speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, necessarily implies that he is a Balthasarian or that he supports any form of “Hopeful Universalism”.
He simply stated that he likes to think of hell as being empty; we, as Christians, must exercise charity towards our neighbors, which includes the desire for them to be saved, however, no one is excluded from such charity, so we must desire the salvation of everyone.
This does not mean that everyone will be saved, because at the end of the day, God did everything possible for everyone's salvation, even to the point of emptying Himself of His Divinity and taking the form of a humble servant, but the sinner can decide to resist until the end, and continue to spit in the face of Christ.
Pope Francis has often stated that hell is a real possibility, and has even urged members of the mafia to repent, stating that there is still time not to end up in hell, and he states that there is a sin that cannot be forgiven, that of corruption, and the reason for this is quite simple: someone cannot be forgiven if they do not desire forgiveness.
Of course, the speech that was made was extremely brief and could have been much more elaborate, however, the conclusion that the Holy Father was granting Baltashar's theological views is a stretch.