...."and the desire not to keep the little children from the Lord..."
So when are you doing to stop denying the saving Body and Blood of Christ to your infant and small children? :-)
It will indeed be intresting to see if now Catholics will be in less of a hurry to get their children baptized, now that Limbo has been relegated to the dustbin along with St. George, St. Christopher, St. Nicholas, and receiving communion from the hand of a priest.
I doubt practices will change much, since the practice of churching the mother and child on the 40th day died out long ago (yet another Orthodox remnant of Hebrew practices.) This, I am convinced, is a practical reason why we routinely baptize later.
Our theology just tells us not to worry about a later baptism of an infant, so there was nothing to stop the development of the practical "solution" of combining churching with baptism (similar to the practical "solutions" of combining betrothal and marriage ceremonies, and of combining in the Orthodox Church of some of the prayers at the making of catechumens with the baptism/chrismation service.)
That's a good point. You have a knack for doing that! However, Paul says we are to discern the Body of the Lord in the Eucharist. Infants can't do that. I suppose either argument is valid. It becomes more a "tradition", not an official dogmatic teaching.
It will indeed be intresting to see if now Catholics will be in less of a hurry to get their children baptized, now that Limbo has been relegated to the dustbin along with St. George, St. Christopher, St. Nicholas, and receiving communion from the hand of a priest.
I agree that the "extraordinary" minister has become "ordinary"... It is a difficult thing, because on the one hand, it is good for people to participate in the Sacred Liturgy, but it can be bad, as it dilutes what is REALLY happening - heaven coming down to earth...
Regards