Musaazi Namiti
Religious people in Uganda and other countries often treat atheists with suspicion, even hostility. In Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim South Asian nation, atheists have been murdered.
In 2022, Nigeria sentenced an atheist to 24 years, claiming he had blasphemed Islam. Christians, even those with superficial knowledge of the Bible, are quick to cite Psalm 14:1 once they hear "atheist". The verse says: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'"
The deep-seated view among Christians is that an atheist is a good-for-nothing person awaiting hell. Yet Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday aged 88, clearly interpreted Psalm 14:1 differently. What many Ugandan Catholics may not know is that one man the Pope met regularly and had deep conversations with was an avowed Italian atheist and journalist named Eugenio Scalfari. He died in July 2022, aged 98. You have to wonder why, of all people, the leader of the Catholic Church always found time for Scalfari, whom he called a friend. His friendship with a man many Catholics would toss into hell raises questions about the universal truth of religious beliefs. Should we really take Psalm 14:1 seriously?
If this verse is from a book Christians call the word of God, why didn’t the Pope interpret it the same way as many Christians? If atheists are a problem and are persecuted as in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, why did the leader of the Catholic Church always welcome an atheist with open arms? The most noteworthy feature of the two men's friendship is that even when Scalfari wrote articles in La Repubblica, the newspaper he co-founded, that appeared to misrepresent what the Pope had said to him, Pope Francis did not close the door. In 2018, Scalfari, who conducted his interviews without a tape recorder or a notebook, wrote that the Pope had told him that hell did not exist. The article, published as the Pope was preparing for Easter Sunday celebrations, caused quite a stir. Tabloids seized upon it to write sensational headlines. "Vatican literally falls apart after Pope Francis says ‘Hell doesn't exist,’" read a headline in UK’s Metro.
The Vatican was not pleased. Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See's press office, refuted what the journalist had written. "As already stated on other occasions, the words that Dr Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during talks with him cannot be considered a faithful account of what was actually said but represent a personal and free interpretation of what he heard..." Mr Bruni said.
Misquoting or the alleged misquoting of the Pope did not create friction. When Mr Scalfari passed away, Mr Bruni issued a statement saying Pope Francis learned “with sorrow of the passing of his friend,” according to the website Vatican News. The Pope, the statement continued, “cherishes with affection the memory of the meetings — and the deep conversations on the ultimate questions of humankind — that he had with him over the years, and he entrusts his soul to the Lord in prayer, so that He may receive him and console those who were close to him.”
The two men must have met their creator, as religious people believe — Scalfari since July 2022 and Pope Francis since April 21, 2025. Now you have to wonder: Is God pleased that Pope Francis was meeting an atheist in a world with more than one billion Catholics? Will Pope Francis sit in heaven while Scalfari is roasted in hellfire? For non-believers, these are not important questions. But for believers with no kind words for atheists, this is real food for thought.
Mr Namiti is a journalist and former
Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
