"Madre di Dio! What next?!"
(A little light hearted humor ... :-)
Posted on 10/04/2006 6:41:15 AM PDT by NYer
Rome reports indicate that the Holy See's International Theological Commission is examining the notion of limbo at a meeting this week and may be on the verge of scrapping it.
Ad Kronos International (AKI) reports that the Vatican reportedly appears set to abolish the Catholic tradition that holds that the souls of children who die before being baptised going to limbo.
Citing a report in Turin, Italy newspaper, La Stampa, AKI says that the issue is being discussed this weeke by the International Theological Commission, a body of Catholic theologians from around the world that advises the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
According to the 1904 catechism published by Pope St Pius X in 1904, "children who died without baptism go to the limbo where they do not enjoy God but don't suffer either as having the original sin, and only that, they do not deserve Paradise nor Hell or Purgatory".
The Church however has for a long time stopped referring to the concept Limbo and in 1984 theologian Joseph Ratzinger, elected Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, said that Limbo "was never a truth of the faith."
"I would let it drop as this has always only been a theological hypothesis," he said.
According to the Fathers of the Church, the concept limbo is that people who lived good lives but died before the Resurrection did not go to heaven, but rather had to wait for Christ to open the gates of heaven.
The term limbo does not appear in the Bible. In Holy Scripture, limbo is referred to as the term bosom of Abraham, appearing twice in it.
The bosom of Abraham represents the blissful state where the righteous dead await their eternal reward.
As such, this concept corresponds to the concept of limbo of the fathers in that it is neither heaven nor hell and the people there are waiting to enter paradise.
SOURCE
Vatican: Limbo for children likely to be scrapped (AdKronos International, 3/10/06)
(A little light hearted humor ... :-)
LOL! He's been in the thick of it lately.
Getting rid of Limbo? Oh, that Limbo. And I thought we were bending over backwards for a reason!
Excuse my ignorance, but didn't they already do this a couple years ago?
I seem to recall a couple articles on it maybe four, five years ago. Or were they just considering it?
The article, posted above, says:
The Church however has for a long time stopped referring to the concept Limbo and in 1984 theologian Joseph Ratzinger, elected Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, said that Limbo "was never a truth of the faith."
"I would let it drop as this has always only been a theological hypothesis," he said.
SD
Limbo makes more sense than any other theological opinion about unbaptized babies I've heard.
And, like the limbo of the Fathers, the departed souls of these unbaptized could receive the Word in limbo, and eventually then enter Heaven.
Geez, do I get tired of this kind of idiotic British info-torial, written by people who wouldn't know a Catholic doctrine if it bit them on the butt.
The headline blares out the misinformation that the Pope thinks he can "save souls" (which is a power of God which no pope claims for himself) and the outright fabrication that this clarification of doctrine was made in order to score points off the Islamic world.
You have to go down four paragraphs before The Times even sees fit to mention that limbo is not a dogma of the Church. So the Pope isn't changing Church dogmas after all. Huh.
For centuries, Christian people have wondered what happened to innocent but unbaptized people who died. One scenario was that those who possessed supernatural life attained supernatural happiness (heaven), but those who possessed only natural life, attained only natural happiness (right on the edge, so to speak, of heaven.)
This is what "limbo" (from Latin "limbus," the edge or border) is all about: a hypothesis that there might exist a state of natural blessedness for those who had only a natural capacity for enjoyment.
This is in line with a poetic imagination which delighted in guessing about different circles of heaven corresponding to different degrees of blessedness, and different ranks of angels such as seraphim, cherubim, etc.
It's a benign notion. Not a dogma of the Church (check your online searchable Catholic Catechism --- but a widespread and kindly thought all the same.
Trust the Times of London to put a Pope vs Muslims spin on the most innocent of heavenly thoughts.
Rush Limbo was unavailable for comment.
Makes sense to me as a possibility. We know that the Church believes that non-Christians can theoretically be saved through Christ, even if they don't know his Name in this life. Perhaps limbo could be how it works.
I suppose the argument against limbo is that God will do what He will, and the particular mechanics of how He does it are not something we need to know. But that doesn't strike me as a traditionally Catholic approach.
In limbo souls would exist in a state of perfect natural happiness, but not possess the Beautific Vision, or supernatural happiness that souls in heaven have.
The Eastern church (both Catholic and Orthodox) has wonderful icons showing the resurrected Christ grabbing Adam, Eve, Moses, David and all the great and God-loving Jews and hauling them into heaven. Beautiful!
Huh?
"The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church." (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
And now the Catholic bashers will show up thinking that this is about Purgatory.
It depends on the definition of "joined with Her."
SD
Nope, just wondering what other pieces of doctrine are optional.
Yes, I read the article, but I seemed to recall something about Pope John Paul II doing much the same as Benedict is doing now.
Yes. But they can be joined with Holy Mother Church in a mysterious way.
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