What's With Hell?

I read an interesting article in the New York Times titled, "An Atheist and a Pope Talk (Maybe) About Hell," by Jason Horowitz. It begins, "The Vatican felt obliged this week to reaffirm that Pope Francis believes in a central tenet of Catholicism, that there is a hell."
I'm puzzled as to why Pope Francis continues to have casual chats and meetings with Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist, Italian, anti-clerical journalist, since Scalfari distorts the Pope's words when quoting him. Doesn't sound like the kind of person the Pope should converse with casually or at all.
The question of Hell and its existence has troubled theologians for centuries. Does Hell actually exist? And who is in Hell? Well I always go back to the saints for many of them have been given divine knowledge and some have said or written that they have been given glimpses of Hell and it certainly unnerved them.  They saw or felt or envisioned something horrific.
The authority on this topic would be the Catechism of the Catholic Church which says, "To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is call "hell (CCC 1033).
There is a great story about St. Therese of Lisieux who prayed continually for a murderer who was sentenced to die. She prayed and prayed that he would repent before his death and as it turned out her prayers were answered. Before his execution he asked for a crucifix which he kissed and she took that to mean he repented and her prayers were answered and he was spared the "fires of Hell."
I pray for the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, as he has ordered the torture and death of innocent people and I hope and pray he converts or repents before he dies, because he is certainly a candidate for Hell. He should get his act together before its too late, in my humble opinion. I pray often that he repents, for his sake, the sake of his family and the sake of the people of North Korea.
NJA