Rome - The Pope declared yesterday that the physical side of eternal damnation for sinners was less painful than being cut off from God.
It was part of a concerted effort by the Vatican to replace the idea of the infinite physical torture of hell for the damned with something more akin to eternal loneliness.
Earlier this month an influential Jesuit magazine, Civilta Cattolica, said hell was not a physical place but a state of being.
