"However, according to the Catholic News Agency, the Pope is claiming that the journalist is twisting Bergoglio’s words following a private meeting. The Vatican issued a statement to the news agency stating that the report
‘should not be considered an accurate depiction of Francis’ words, but the author’s own “reconstruction.”’ In addition, this is not the first time that such has occurred, in fact, in an interview in 2015, apparently the Italian paper claimed something similar after a private meeting with the Pope."
Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari the founder and former editor of Italian newspaper La Repubblica- a communist publication. He hates the Church.
But anti-Catholics clamor to believe a communist and ignore the Pope. They are on the same side IMO.
This is the official Church teaching on hell. No Pope, cardinal, bishop or priest can change it. There may be false opinions, but that is all they are, false opinions.
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616
1035 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."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."618
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."619
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":621
Footnotes:
612
1 Jn 3:14-15.
613 Cf.
Mt 25:31-46.
614 Cf.
Mt 5:22,29; 10:28; 13:42,50;
Mk 9:43-48.
615
Mt 13:41-42.
616
Mt 25:41.
617 Cf. DS 76; 409; 411; 801; 858; 1002; 1351; 1575; Paul VI,
CPG § 12.
618
Mt 7:13-14.
619
LG 48 § 3;
Mt 22:13; cf.
Heb 9:27;
Mt 25:13,26,30,31-46.
620 Cf. Council of Orange II (529)

S 397; Council of Trent (1547):1567.
621
2 Pet 3:9.
Catechism of the Catholic Church - I believe in life everlasting
Imagine that...scripture in the catechism.