At a meeting between Churchill and Stalin in 1944 Churchill was trying the soft soap method in a futile attempt to get Stalin to go easy on Poland after the Soviets drove the Nazis out:
“In a future world for which our soldiers shed blood on countless fronts, our three great democracies will demonstrate to all mankind that they will, in war and in peace, remain faithful to the high principles of freedom, dignity and happiness of the people. That is why I attach such exceptional importance to the good-neighbourly relations between the revived Poland and the Soviet Union. Because of Poland’s freedom and independence, Britain entered the war. The British feel a moral responsibility to the Polish people and their spiritual values. Poland is also a Catholic country. We must not allow internal development there to complicate our relations with the Vatican.”
“How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?” Stalin asked, suddenly interrupting Churchill’s line of reasoning.
Valentin Berezhkov, Stalin’s interpreter, in his memoirs recounted this.
The response of Pius XII I have been unable to source as to time and place, but it has become immortal: “You can tell my son Joseph that he will meet my divisions in Heaven.”
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Of course, it is possible that Stalin observed these divisions from a distance over a great chasm.
I’d be surprised if Stalin is in heaven. Reason tells you he went to hell. A monster whose poison continues to kill long after his death. ☠️
But yes – God’s Mercy is infinite and only He knows.
Stalin said: “To kill a man is homicide. To kill 30 million (starved to death in the Ukraine through Stalin’s orders) is a statistic.Maybe Stalin is counting his statistics before he enters into heaven.
The chasm I was speaking of is the one over which Dives views Abraham.