Catholic Church and Limbo

WhatsHisNuts

WhatsHisNuts

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I just read about this and had to look it up myself. To save anyone the agony of reading the whole thing, here's the gist of it: 30 member team of theologians get together to figure out what happens to unbaptized children when they die.

What a collosal waste of time. Apparently, playing make-believe is a lot more important than addressing real-world issues.

Is limbo in limbo? Vatican meeting of theologians discusses its dismantling
12/1/2005
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online, press reports) ? Catholic theologians gathered in a closed-door meeting Nov. 30 to discuss a document that would eliminate as church teaching a concept that many Catholics accepted as an element of Catholic theology.

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The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Canada, and the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg, South Africa, reported yesterday that 30-member International Theological Commission discussed the dismantling of a key element of the church?s architecture of the cosmos.

Limbo, together with heaven, hell and purgatory, served in popular Catholic understanding as one of the destinations of the soul after death.


Limbo, never officially defined by the church, was a theological concept developed in the Middle Ages that said unbaptized babies would spend eternity in a state of "natural happiness," but would not enjoy the perfect communion with God that comes through baptism into Jesus Christ.

Italian media reported Nov. 29 that the theological commission intends to advise Pope Benedict to banish the notion of limbo from all teachings of the Catholic catechism.

Catholic News Service reported Oct. 7, 2004, that Pope John Paul II asked the commission, headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to come up with "a more coherent and enlightened way" of describing the fate of such innocent infants.

What the Catholic Church believes about the fate of babies who die without baptism is not an "isolated theological problem," but one that touches belief about original sin, the importance of baptism and God's desire to save all people, Pope John Paul II said Oct. 7, 2004, during a meeting with members of the commission.

According to an Oct. 6, 2004, statement, the theological Commission took up the question of "the fate of children who have died without baptism" during their Oct. 4-8 meeting at the Vatican.

The discussion, it said, was framed "in the context of the universal salvific plan of God, of the uniqueness of Christ's mediation and of the sacramentality of the church in the order of salvation."

The word ?limbo? comes from the Latin word meaning ?edge? or ?border,? and refers as the place or state of the dead who are not in heaven or hell or purgatory. The limbo of the Fathers (?limbus partum?) was the place or state of the just who died before Christ but could not reach the beatitude of heaven before his descent among the dead and his ascension.

The limbo of children, which alone became important in Christian tradition, is the place or state of infants or adults who never had the use of reason who, once Christ had come, did not receive baptism and the incorporation in the church that it brings.

The ?Catechism of the Catholic Church? does not use the word ?limbo,? though does reference it in its index in the article devoted to ?The Necessity of Baptism.?

?As regards children who have died without baptism, the church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus? tenderness toward children which caused him to say: ?Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,? allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without baptism. All the more urgent is the church?s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy baptism,? the catechism notes (no. 1261).
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WhatsHisNuts

WhatsHisNuts

Woke
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Man, am I glad we got this cleared up. Religious insanity continues. Seriously though, can one of the believers please defend the Church on this one because this is nutso in my book.

Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries By Philip Pullella
Fri Apr 20, 2:21 PM ET

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church has effectively buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went.

In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of salvation."

The 41-page document was published on Friday by Origins, the documentary service of the U.S.-based Catholic News Service, which is part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Pope Benedict, himself a top theologian who before his election in 2005 expressed doubts about limbo, authorized the publication of the document, called "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised."

The verdict that limbo could now rest in peace had been expected for years. The document was seen as most likely the final word since limbo was never part of Church doctrine, even though it was taught to Catholics well into the 20th century.

"The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in revelation," it said.

"There are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible (to baptize them)."

The Church teaches that baptism removes original sin which stains all souls since the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden.

"NO NEGATION OF BAPTISM"

The document stressed that its conclusions should not be interpreted as questioning original sin or "used to negate the necessity of baptism or delay the conferral of the sacrament."

Limbo, which comes from the Latin word meaning "border" or "edge," was considered by medieval theologians to be a state or place reserved for the unbaptized dead, including good people who lived before the coming of Christ.

"People find it increasingly difficult to accept that God is just and merciful if he excludes infants, who have no personal sins, from eternal happiness, whether they are Christian or non-Christian," the document said.

It said the study was made all the more pressing because "the number of nonbaptised infants has grown considerably, and therefore the reflection on the possibility of salvation for these infants has become urgent."

The commission's conclusions had been widely expected.

In writings before his election as Pope in 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made it clear he believed the concept of limbo should be abandoned because it was "only a theological hypothesis" and "never a defined truth of faith."

In the Divine Comedy, Dante placed virtuous pagans and great classical philosophers, including Plato and Socrates, in limbo. The Catholic Church's official catechism, issued in 1992 after decades of work, dropped the mention of limbo.
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