“At 7.35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.” (Declaration of the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, 21.04.2025)

This statement contains an outright claim, an implied assertion, and a paradigm. We need to examine all of these.

The outright claim is that Pope Francis went to heaven when he died.

The implied assertion is that Francis came to earth from heaven in the first place.

The paradigm is that, for human beings, our location matters more than our status.

For more details on what I discuss in this episode, check out my series on what the Bible says about death and hell.