Does Catholic doctrine teach that atheists go to heaven, too? The following is taken from the following article: Pope Says Atheists Are A-OK By God.


  Referencing a passage from the Gospel of Mark in his homily, the Pope
  recounted the story of a priest who told an inquiring Catholic that
  Jesus redeemed everyone, even atheists, and all he asks in return is
  that people "do good and do not do evil."
  
  "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ:
  all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!" the Pope quoted the priest
  as saying.
  
  "Father, the atheists?," the skeptical Catholic responded. "Even the
  atheists. Everyone!" the priest replied, and added: "We must meet one
  another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’
  But do good: we will meet one another there."
  
  The Guardian notes that Pope Francis's ongoing efforts to unite all
  people, both believers and nonbelievers, stands in stark contrast to
  approach of his predecessors — particularly Benedict, "who sometimes
  prompted complaints from non-Catholics that he seemed to see them as
  second-class believers."
  
  Catholic Online has already embraced the newly christened Pope's
  message, taking it a step further by declaring that atheists can "go
  to heaven too."


Is universal reconciliation now the official belief in Catholicism?
The short answer is No.

The misconception that Pope Francis has in any way changed Church teaching or turned us into universalists was explicitly addressed by quite a few Catholic bloggers recently. In particular, Fr. Dwight Longenecker states states it like this:


  Unfortunately for those who wish to paint Pope Francis as a lovable
  liberal, in fact, the Pope is simply affirming certain truths that any
  somewhat knowledgable Catholic will uphold. First, that Christ died to
  redeem the whole world. We can distinguish his redemptive work from
  the acceptance of salvation. He redeemed the whole world. However,
  many will reject that saving work. In affirming the universality of
  Christ’s redemptive work we are not universalists. To say that he
  redeemed the whole world is not to conclude that all will be saved.


The Catholic Church, not unlike other Christian groups, has always taught that Christ's redemption is for all. It's always taught that the "Mystical Church" extends beyond the visible Church. And while the visible Church is the "normal means" for salvation, God is not limited by those means.

To be clear, atheism is still a sin according to the Catholic Church — and always will be. But, all of us are sinners. And the best any of us can do is continually re-submit ourselves to God. The "gotcha" that the Pope may have intended to highlight is simply that God is big, transcendent, and mysterious: He doesn't operate exclusively under the name of "God."

Even within the scope of scripture and Catholic literature, God is known by a lot of names, each of which tends to arise for the purpose of meeting sinners "where they are." An atheist may be averse to "God" so-called by Christians because of our hypocrisies, not realizing that our God (Christ) and their Truth, Source, Life, or Love are alluding to the same being.

The role of the Church is not to condemn. It's to continually recognize the truthiness and goodness already in people and draw them deeper into truth. This is exemplified by Paul in Acts 17:22-34, wherein he recognizes and elaborates on a single shred of truth the Athenians confess, the idol to "an unknown god."

And it's important to remember, we're all on a truth spectrum. None of us, presumably, are living in a state of complete knowledge or complete ignorance. According to Catholic theology, it's less important where we are on the spectrum than it is in which direction we're actively trending.