NationStates Jolt Archive


Limbo is now.... in Limbo!

Silliopolous
02-12-2005, 17:53
Well, according to the Pope anyway... (http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-11-29_1975390.html)

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

...

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."


Well, that's a nice way to remove an emotional crutch to grieving parents don'tcha think?

"Your two-day old? In heaven? Roll the dice Mom. God might think it was Eeeeeeeeeevilllllllllllllll!!!!"



Just wondering.... where do centuries old theological speculations go when they die?
Solarea
02-12-2005, 18:10
I have great respect for the Pope and the Catholic Church because of the way they manage to steer, so skillfully, enormous masses of raving, insane fanatics. They should write a book on mind control.
Argesia
02-12-2005, 18:12
The notion was a pretty good way to trim the ambiguities of Christianity. It got rid of some loose ends, ones that Protestants, Orthodox and Monophysite don't even bother noticing.
Goodbye, coherence.