In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.

Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: "You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don't believe and who don't seek the faith.  I start by saying - and this is the fundamental thing - that God's mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. "Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience." 

Robert Mickens, the Vatican correspondent for the Catholic journal The Tablet, said the pontiff's comments were further evidence of his attempts to shake off the Catholic Church's fusty image, reinforced by his extremely conservative predecessor Benedict XVI. 

Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the apostolic nuncio to India, presented the relic to Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay at Mount Mary's Basilica at Bandra. People in India have great "love, affinity and memory" of Pope John Paul II, as a result of his 1986 apostolic visit to the country, Fr. Charanghat said.