Chris Matthews giddily welcomed HBO's Bill Maher of Real Time With Bill Maher to his MSNBC show Tuesday and mentioned how much he "loves" being a guest with the liberal comedian and commentator.

Acknowledging that Bill Maher is an atheist, Matthews delved into religion and brought up Pope Francis. Matthews claimed the Pope has "struck a cord" even with President Obama since he plans on commenting on "income inequality" during his State of the Union this month.

Maher responded,

Right well he keeps shaking things up in a way we have never really seen a pope do. I mean, he just appointed a bunch of new Cardinals which is kind of a Pope's way of redistricting.

Matthews laughed and then Maher continued, saying he thinks people in the Vatican "must be going nuts":

...He keeps saying things that must just blow their minds! The first thing he said when that, when he got into office was that atheists get into heaven! You know when he said that they were like, 'We gotta prepare the poison now!'

The Pope's alleged comments regarding how atheists will get into heaven have been debunked by many as taken out of context. After Matthews wondered aloud if the Pope's comments and actions are bringing people back to Catholicism, Bill Maher said:

I think ultimately maybe his goal is to kinda bring it down.