No Limbo????
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 .
Frankly if it weren't for Limbo half of our legal cases would never be resolved.
This could end Chubby Checker's career.
And yet another reason why I'm an EX-Catholic.
Nobody deserves paradise except through the merits of Christ.
I better put my entire supply of limbo sticks on Ebay right now.
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 reason they were reluctant to use the word limbo is because long before the state of limbo became associated with the fate of children who died before baptism, it was originally posed as a theological state to which the righteous OT Jews -- like Abraham, Moses, etc. -- went before Christ opened up the gates of heaven.
For a more complete explanation, see the entry for Limbo in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
No Limbo????
OK guys, who will come out and defend limbo?
When I had my children, my husbands grandmother, was absolutely horrified that we did not immediately run from the hospital to the Catholic Church to have our children immediately baptized...she was so horrified that they would die and then go to limbo...such was her belief....she could not take an easy breath, until we had them baptized, when they were a couple of months old...
Until then "Limbo" will be in, well, limbo.
So the concept of Limbo is in limbo?
Any now they tell it always has been?
"And yet another reason why I'm an EX-Catholic."
Yippeee!
Bill Clinton. He thinks it's a combination of a limo and a bimbo.
Sounds like Limbo is in, well, limbo.
There was a hippie-leftie-Irish-Catholic comic who did a great bit on Limbo on one of his albums (remember albums?).
Is there any connection between this new stance on limbo and the church's stance on abortion?
This is true.
And unless there is some question about the merits of Christ, I don't get where "Limbo" comes in.
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