Most people reading the headline, "Pope Gets Rid of Limbo" are probably thinking, "What a killjoy! We really liked that game." They have in mind, of course, the game invented in Trinidad in which people shimmy their way to an ever-lowering pole and then try and propel their bodies, facing up and legs first, under the bar. It's a lot of fun to watch, especially when there are girls doing it, and alcohol is involved.
This type of limbo has not been outlawed by Pope Benedict, although I am sure he is ambivalent about it. Rather, the Pope has approved a theological commission's recommendation that the Catholic Church get rid of it's longstanding concept of limbo--a place, mentioned nowhere in the Bible, where babies go if they die before being baptized. Limbo has never been a formal doctrine of the Catholic Church, but it was considered sufficiently standard to be included in pre-communion lessons in Catholic schools around the world.
I was scornful of the idea when I first learned it in Catholic cathechism. But over the years I saw that it makes a kind of sense. The Christian idea is that we humans are born with original sin, what Immanuel Kant called the "crooked timber of humanity." This warped disposition is part of our nature, and therefore Catholics held that even newborns have it, and how can anyone who has an unrepented sinful nature go to heaven? Hell seemed like too harsh an alternative for little ones who had done nothing wrong, and so the Catholic Church invented limbo.
Think of limbo as a place which has no suffering, or if there is suffering, it is very mild. One of my Dartmouth professors explained it as a place where one-year-olds were gently pelted with marshmallows which they were nevertheless permitted to eat.
But today we live in a strange era in which infants are killed even before they are officially born. Thanks to Roe v. Wade and other abortion laws, being born is itself getting to be quite an achievement! And certainly it seems cruel and unreasonable to consign an unborn child, whose life has been snuffed out even before it began, to anything less than heaven. Even marshmallow pelting seems unfair under these circumstances.
And so from now on Catholicism will teach that unbaptized infants--born and unborn--go straight to heaven. I like this idea better, although I'm going to have to throw out my old cathechism book.
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 33)
91. I am a born again Christian. Not because I was baptised or believed about God, but because after being convicted by God's Holly Spirit that If I died without Jesus I would spend eternity in Hell. I struggled with this for about four years trying to hold on to my sinful desires until I became so depressed I didn;t want to live but was afraid of dieing. I knew in my heart that what I needed to do was give up my sinful desires ant comit my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. At the age of fourteen I gave my life to Jesus Christ and received his Salvation. Repentance is the key. Now I have total peace.
Jack Henry at 1:18PM on Apr 21st 2007
92. I was raised Catholic and left the Church because of teachings like "limbo" that made no sense whatsoever. Because the Pope reverses the Church's view on Limbo does not mean there is no God. How ridiculous is that. Religion has always held a large margin of error because it is in human hands here on earth. God is religion-less. He is pure love. And the fact that Pope Benedict had the courage to come out and say "OK so we have been making a HUGE mistake for centuries and its time to correct this" only proves to me he is a true man of God.
Rosa at 1:18PM on Apr 21st 2007
93. First: The Bible AV1611KJB says NOTHING about a place called "limbo". Hence the reason the catholics are wrong about their belief in such a place. Secondly: If you study the Bible, and you should, no where does it say you have to be baptized in order to go to heaven. Study King David and his adultrous affair with Bathsheba and you will find that their illegitimate baby died and went to heaven. Never having been baptized! God is a merciful God. A person has to come to the knowledge of the truth: The Word of God, and reject the gospel in order to go to hell. A place spoken of in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament and was not made up by Christians. Hell is a place prepared for the Devil and his angels and unfortunately those who reject Jesus Christ Our Lord and Saviour go to a place that was prepared for the devil not humans. Read the Bible in order to learn the TRUTH. "A mans judgement is not any better than his knowledge in any given subject." God does not want humans to dwell in ignorance. the problem is so many people are "willingly ignorant" and "parrot" what they have been told over the years by unregenerate people. When the blind lead the blind they will all end up in a ditch.
Colonel Empire at 12:34AM on Apr 23rd 2007
94. what about IVF babies? we are all talking about babies that have been conceived naturally, or by God. What about babies that are made in a pietre dish in a lab by a doctor. Does that mean that they are out of the loop? If they are created by science and not by God how can they go back to him if they die?
mary at 1:21PM on Apr 21st 2007
95. "for those criticizing the catholic church yet profess to follow the word of god, remember where the bible came from..THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!! "
A comment on Joe's statement: Where died you get that idea?! The Bible did not came from Catholic Church as you said. Read the contents of the Bible and listen to Catholic "teachings" and you will see the difference. The Bible is the Word of God while the Catholic Doctrine is the word of man. Try reading the Bible and you will see that the Catholic Doctrine are way off to the teachings of the Bible - Word of God. I am a born Catholic but I don't approve to what the Catholic Doctrine teaches. Sorry to Cathilics out there but this is my opinion. Bear with it.
genesis8548 at 1:23PM on Apr 21st 2007
96. What does it matter. Heaven and Hell are not real people.
Steve at 1:23PM on Apr 21st 2007
97. I don't like this. When do infants begin to have a sinful nature? We are all born with Adam's original sin.
geraldslizard at 1:29PM on Apr 21st 2007
98. Mike,
I have to disagree with you about this reversal of church doctrine creating a "plastic God" Limbo is a man made creation. It is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. The reversal of such, is not creating a "plastic" God. It is revealing a truer version of Him to His children. We will never know God completely it is impossible, but the version of God not allowing an innocent life to spend eternity with Him because a man on earth didn't pour water on his head is preposterous!
Rosa at 1:24PM on Apr 21st 2007
99. Baptism is and always has been a public profession of faith just as communion is. We are not commanded to do either. Jesus said, "the only way to the Father (salvation) is through Me". Faith that Jesus is the only way to heaven is the only thing that will bring the salvation we need to stand before God and be redeemed by his grace. We as humans can do nothing short of believing in His grace through the shed blood, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to get to heaven. Even baptism will not save you or otherwise the thief on the cross would not have gone to heaven. But Jesus said "today you will be in heaven".
As far as infants, God is surely big enough to understand and know each of our hearts and level of knowledge. What knowledge do we have as infants? What understanding do we have of right and wrong? These aspects of life come with growth and maturity. Maturity can be measured by our ability to make right or wrong decisions based on His word that He has hidden in our hearts. Until then, I believe, God is fully capable of salvation for infants or anyone that does not have the capability to understand reason and common sense based on our responsibility to love our neighbors as ourselves and be compassionate people.
B at 1:27PM on Apr 21st 2007
100. Yes, I say! Burn the Baltimore Catechism books. I found one a few years ago at age 60, read it and found it scarier than anything depicted about hell! I think South Park has the religious thing down just right! And this limbo business...as a 6-year-old, I was plumb duffed out of my mind! The nuns have a lot to answer for...but not for their servility to the male-orientated church.
vmhansen at 1:33PM on Apr 21st 2007
101. Quite frankly as we all argue a small spec of doctrine, poor Steve who posts: "87. What does it matter. Heaven and Hell are not real people" is the one I truly feel sorry for.
Rosa at 5:57PM on Apr 21st 2007
102. I was raised Catholic, but when a Pope, who has never been married, or had any children tries to dictate what I can or cannot do within my own family, that's not in the bible, my hhusband , which I was not allowed to wed in thier churh because the priest didn't approve of him, I called it quits, By the way, next month we'll have been married 40 years
Catherine McGaughey at 1:30PM on Apr 21st 2007
103. WELL, FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS! I LOVE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH,IT IS THE SOUND VOICE OF REASON IN A WORLD THAT IS IN A STATE OF SAD REBELLION AND DISORDER. THE MEDIA IS LIKE ONE UTTERLY LONG DISCOURSE ON THE BANALITY OF EVIL.LIKE THE WHOLE WORLD IS STUCK ON THE MOUNTAIN WITH SATAN WHEN HE TEMPTED JESUS SAYING ..ALL THIS WILL I GIVE YOU IF YOU FALL DOWN AND ADORE ME.ONTO THE WORLD STAGE ENTERS THE NEXT PONTIFF,A BRILLIANT THEOLOGICAL MIND WITH THE GIFT OF BEING ABLE TO CONVEY INTO SIMPLE TERMS, COMPLEX ISSUES.THANK GOD! LIMBO SEEMED SO AMBIVALENT.I LOVED THE COMMENT BY ROB ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF HEAVEN AND HELL BY ST ISAAC THE SYRIAN...IT SEEMS SO TRUE... "THAT HELL FOR THE UNBELIEVER WOULD BE HAVING TO GET CLOSE TO LOVE,HOW ODIOUS THAT WOULD BE FOR SOMEONE WHO HATES LOVE.
CHARLE at 1:32PM on Apr 21st 2007
104. I applaud the decision as another positive step towards eliminating issues that have created dissent within the Christian community.
I would suggest for consideration the existance of a distinction between the innocent stillborn for whom this place of comfort was originally intended and the innocents who are victimized by the premeditated, willful actions of a fellow human being.
In response to those non-Roman Catholics who delight in their holier-than-thou nonsense about being closer to salvation because of their strict adherence to a belief that what is written in the bible is somehow the direct word of God, I suggest that they open their eyes to the fact that the bible writers were mere mortal men the same as the Pope.
None of them have any greater connection to the divine than anyone lese who leads a life of tolerance and the basic lessons of "let him who is without sin cast the first stone" and the Golden Rule.
Gary
Gary Savage at 2:23PM on Apr 21st 2007
105. It cracks me up to see some say something like "the word of god, not the word of man" and then specifically the cite the King James Bible as the end-all/be-all word of god. So you are telling me God is a 17th century English Monarch? If it is written (carved, recorded, painted) it is the word of man, at best a human interpretation of the intent of God. NO ONE has the definitive answer unless they got it personally from the big guy. (And don't tell me the Gospel of John is the literal word of god...nothing was written down until centuries after the fact. You can't accept a book written less than 400 years ago (1611 for good King James) as absolute fact unless you are also willing to accept John Smith taking dictation from an angel, the literal and eternal truth of the Koran, or the detailed guidance of the Torah.
jeff at 1:41PM on Apr 21st 2007