Posted on 11/29/2005 3:42:52 PM PST by Claud
Vatican considers dropping 'limbo'
Theologians meet to look again at fate of unbaptised tots
(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 29 - The Catholic Church appears set to definitively drop the concept of limbo, the place where it has traditionally said children's souls go if they die before being baptised .
Limbo has been part of Catholic teaching since the 13th century and is depicted in paintings by artists such as Giotto and in important works of literature such as Dante's Divine Comedy .
But an international commission of Catholic theologians is meeting in the Vatican this week to draw up a new report for Pope Benedict XVI on the question. The report is widely expected to advise dropping it from Catholic teaching .
The pope made known his doubts about limbo in an interview published in 1984, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's doctrinal department .
"Limbo has never been a defined truth of faith," he said. "Personally, speaking as a theologian and not as head of the Congregation, I would drop something that has always been only a theological hypothesis." According to Italian Vatican watchers, the reluctance of theologians to even use the word limbo was clear in the way the Vatican referred in its official statement to the question up for discussion .
The statement referred merely to "the Fate of Children who Die Without Baptism" .
Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, gave the commission the task of looking at the issue again in 2004. He asked experts to come up with a "theological synthesis" able to make the Church's approach "more coherent and illuminated" .
In fact, when John Paul II promulgated the updated version of the Catholic Church's catechism in 1992 there was no mention of the word limbo .
That document gave no clear answer to the question of what happened to children who died before being baptised .
It said: "The Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God...In fact the great mercy of God, who wants all men to be saved, and the tenderness of Jesus towards children... allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who die without baptism." This view is in stark contrast to what Pope Pius X said in an important document in 1905: "Children who die without baptism go into limbo, where they do not enjoy God, but they do not suffer either, because having original sin, and only that, they do not deserve paradise, but neither hell or purgatory." According to teaching from the 13th century on, limbo was also populated by the prophets and patriarchs of Israel who lived in the time before Jesus Christ .
OK guys, who will come out and defend limbo?
Bill Clinton. He thinks it's a combination of a limo and a bimbo.
We have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!
I can only state an opinion which has no theological (that I am aware of) basis, but maybe, just maybe, they are moving towards saying that children who have been aborted, or murdered before they were born, may go to heaven if God, being the almighty knows what choice those children would have made if given the chance.
Its a question that a few folks have asked, what happens to the souls all of those poor children who were killed before they even got a chance to accept or reject God?
Did those who were terminated, go to heaven, hell or were they in limbo?
This might be an answer to the question or at least setting up the foundation to answer the question of the fate of those souls who were aborted.
That's incorrect, sinkspur. You can put them in Hell, beccause Hell is not *necessarily* a place of punishment and natural suffering.
But, limbo says they can't go to heaven either, substituting an absurd notion of a place of "natural happiness" for souls that were made for God.
Why is it absurd? Even the pagans believed as much.
I never claimed (1) that the Church is abandoning something it taught or (2) that what is being abandoned is theologically erroneous. So I am wrong on neither count.
My point had to do with the fallacious reasoning that would call all the Church's teachings into question, since we ourselves rightly do not abandon all our own beliefs when we discover ourselves to have been in error regarding a certain matter. The a fortiori conclusion regarding matters of mere speculation is plain.
-A8
If He were that merciful, He'd make sure your little one would spend eternity with you and his family rather than in Limbo.
I understand that. The theological problem with the fate of those who die before reaching the age of reason is that they cannot make a decision for which they can be held morally responsible. God's "foreknowledge" would not change that.
Day-O!
It can't be dropped, because it was never officially picked up. Catholics have always been free to believe in it or not believe in it as they saw fit. If the Church ever rules one way or the other, it would settle the question, not change it's mind.
We can take comfort in the fact that we worship a loving a just God.
You do have your personal religious beliefs, but I do not appreciate having them shouted at me...shouting does not make your beliefs any more substantial or effective...
The existence of purgatory is a de fide dogma of the Catholic faith, and is not up for discussion.
Limbo is a well-respected theological opinion, but has never been raised to the level of dogma.
Non sequitur.
Except that it follows logically from the premises.
I don't either. They are in Paradise with their Creator.
How many of those "neutralized" pronouncements met the conditions required for an infallible statement, as laid out by Vatican Council I?
Papal infallibility, like purgatory, is defined dogma, and will never be changed.
First the Limbo next the Hokey-Pokey.
Amen......." For by Grace are we saved THROUGH FAITH, that not of OURSELVES; it is a GIFT of GOD, not of WORKS, lest any man should boast". Ephesians 2:8
Yes, I believe we understand that. What is "conferred" is the public and formal recognition that a person is in heaven. God does the real work.
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