Vatican to review state of limbo

[DoYouEverWonder]

6 October 2006

Catholic experts are expected to advise Pope Benedict XVI that teachings on the state of limbo - somewhere between heaven and hell - should be amended.

For centuries many Roman Catholics have believed that the souls of babies who die before baptism remain in limbo.

But the concept has never been part of official Church teaching, and it is thought Pope Benedict may be keen to do away with it.

The Pope has been quoted as dismissing the notion as a mere "hypothesis".

The Catholic Church is concerned about the grief suffered by the parents of stillborn babies, which could be compounded if they believed the souls of their children were to be excluded from heaven.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5412166.stm


Come on Pope Ratzie, you can't get rid of Limbo? Think of the overcrowding problem that it will cause in heaven if you do. I hear condo price are already through the roof there.

[Demeter]

1. The Vatican Is IN Limbo of Its Own Making

How appropriate!

[Waya]

2. Maybe RRRRRatzinger oughta read up on the Bible.....

......he would be surprised by all the things that are written in there that are contrary to the Catholic doctrine............

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. And that's just the parts

the early church decided were acceptable.

You should see the stuff they threw away.

[tjwmason]

4. You do realise that the Church was around for 300 years before the Bible

and it was the Church which decided which books got in?

It's protestantism which thinks that all doctrine flows only from the Bible.

[xchrom]

6. a point that's often over looked here.

[BoneDaddy]

5. Ratzinger

is going to do the limbo? I can't wait to see that.

[tjwmason]

7. This is a total nothing story.

Mediaeval Theologians were pondering (as they were supposed to do), and figured that those who die before attaining reason cannot have committed "actual sin" because that requires a act of will; but those who die without baptism have not received remission of their "original sin". As such some of them thought that the most reasonable answer was that there was a "place" where those who died without baptism and before the age of reason would rest deprived of the punishment of hell (as they haven't committed actual sin), but also deprived of the beatific vision (i.e., heaven; because of their original sin).

It has only ever been a theological pondering, nothing more.

[maddezmom]

8. locking

Not Latest Breaking News:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2544617