A simple question every Christian should be able to answer is can a person be saved without the Gospel? According to Catechism of the Catholic Church 847, yes, there are other ways one can be saved apart from the Gospel. If you don't know the Gospel, that's fine, you can still be saved if you seek God and attempt to do His will through the dictates of your conscience. Now, obviously it doesn't say that those who do this will achieve salvation, but that it is only possible. "Those too may achieve eternal salvation."
But not so, according to the Bible. According to the Bible, even our righteous deeds are filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and it is absolutely vital to spread the Gospel because they can't call on God if they've never heard of Him (Romans 10:14), and it is impossible to please God if you don't believe He exists (Hebrews 11:6). In other words, a critical point about the Gospel is that it is the only way to be saved.
The belief that those who don't know the Gospel can get to Heaven anyway was probably the motivation behind an encounter the Pope had with a little boy named Emanuele. Emanuele's father, a non-believer, had passed away, but he'd had all four of his children baptised. Emanuele's question: Is my dad in Heaven?
This scenario is not one I ever hope to find myself in. I remember one time a young woman in her 30s asked me the same question about her own dad. He had died a non-believer, and she asked if I thought he was "ok up there". I had no clue how to respond, and so I simply admitted I didn't know how to answer the question. I couldn't lie to her and say "yes, he's probably having a beer with the Lord right now." But at the same time, how could I say "no, he died unrepentant, and is thus condemned"?
As cowardly and regrettable as my answer was, I still held to the Gospel by not lying. But here's how the Pope answered Emanuele: "God surely was proud of your father, because it is easier as a believer to baptize your children than to baptize them when you are not a believer. Surely this pleased God very much." He also said "talk to your dad; pray to your dad."
That last sentence adds a whole new layer to this situation. In Catholicism, to be absent from the body is not necessarily to be present with the Lord (Paul disagreed in 2 Corinthians 5:8). Rather, there are three afterlife realms: Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Hell is obviously a place of eternal condemnation. Heaven is a final destination. But Purgatory is a temporary realm wherein those who are due to go to Heaven, but are not yet worthy, pay for any unresolved sins until they're ready to go to Heaven. A "Saint", in Catholic theology, is someone who is definitely in Heaven, and thus can be prayed to.
Thus, by telling the little boy to pray to his father, the Pope is not only telling the child that his father could be saved without having accepted the Gospel, but that he isn't even in Purgatory, where countless faithful Catholics supposedly go. Catholics often threaten "Protestants" with a long stretch in Purgatory, yet an unbelieving man can skip all that just because he had his children baptised into the Catholic Church?
Such a message is not only extremely inconsistent, it is also unBiblical. Those who die in unbelief are undoubtedly condemned. This is a painful fact, and obviously not one we are thrilled to address, but a fact it remains, and it should not be denied. Furthermore, to claim that the Gospel is not a requirement for salvation actually undermines the Gospel itself. Why even bother to preach if Catholics face such a heavy burden whereas unbelievers can skip Purgatory without ever having received the Eucharist? Far better to suppress the Gospel at every opportunity if unbelievers have such an easy time getting to Heaven whereas Catholics must strive to be saved. But if, as the Bible says, salvation is by faith in Christ, and only by faith in Christ, we should not hesitate to preach!
And indeed, preaching the Gospel is exactly what the Apostles did. They preached that all men are sinners, due to receive God's eternal wrath, but that in His unsearchable mercies, He sent Jesus to die on the cross so that we may be forgiven, and that Jesus rose again so that we may be raised with Him. If we believe. If not, that wrath is still due to us. After preaching this Gospel, Paul had some very strong words for those who would preach another: "Let him be anathema."
Catholics ought to be well familiar with this phrase. To be anathema means to be accursed (and indeed, most translations render it that way). To receive the very wrath from which the Gospel saves us. Paul isn't mincing words here, he's effectively saying if you preach another Gospel, go to Hell. He even applied this to himself and the other Apostles, as well as to angels. No one has the right to preach an alternative Gospel, and so in preaching an alternative Gospel via the Catechism, Pope John Paul II declared himself anathema, and in telling Emanuele that his father is in Heaven, even to the point he can be prayed to, Francis declared himself anathema as well.
All of this shows that the Catholic Church, far from being the one true Church founded by Christ Himself, is actually a Satanic counterfeit. It preaches a false gospel, and thus its leaders are anathema. Let us pray for the souls of those who preach the "gospel" of Rome, not so that they may be sped through the mythical realm of Purgatory, but so that those who continue to breathe on the earth may repent and be saved.