How can limbo just be abolished?

[moggie]

Seems Pope Benny is likely to abandon limbo, that boring place that the unbaptised go to when they die:

It was Abelard who introduced the idea of limbo. The word comes from the Latin "limbus", meaning the edge. This would be a state of existence where unbaptised babies, and those unfortunate enough to have been born before Jesus, would not experience pain but neither would they experience the Beatific Vision of God.

But limbo has long been a problem for the Church. Unease has remained over reconciling a Loving God with one who sent babies to limbo and the Church has faced much criticism.

The current review of limbo began in 2004, when Pope John Paul II asked the commission to come up with "a more coherent and enlightened way" of describing the fate of such innocent babes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5406552.stm

An interesting quote from that article suggests that part of the motivation for the change is that in areas where the Catholic church is competing with Islam for converts, limbo is bad PR, since Islam teaches that babies are born without sin. So, time to discard a little more long-standing doctrine...

[SteppingRazor]

1. The same way it was created?

:shrug:

[Kierkegaard]

4. Ding, ding, ding!

From the committees for discussion of inclusion/exclusion, to revisionists, to interpretation, these people have been making shit up as they go along. As they hit road blocks along the way, they massage the doctrine fit their circumstances.

[RoBear]

2. When I was in college

(early 60's) a priest observed that there was no such thing as Limbo. So the idea has been around quite awhile.

Interesting side note is that all the kids from New Jersey who were Catholic-schooled were immediately up in arms. Closest I've been to an insurrection!

[eallen]

3. Same way Zeus passes out of fashion, or a gospel gets written about Jesus.

Religions are created by man. It's that simple.

[stopbush]

5. What's Next? Abolishing Double-Secret Probation?

[Sanity Claws]

6. Catholics have not spoken about limbo for some years now

I was taught it in my Catholic school 40 years ago but the present generation has not been indoctrinated in it.
My prediction on the next concept to go: original sin. The concept of original sin and the need to erase it is the basis of baptism. Because unbaptized individuals still had original sin, they were condemned to limbo.
It's been many years since I was subjected to Catholic theology so feel free to correct my recollection and prediction.

[cmkramer]

12. I thought Limbo had been "abolished" too

I also grew up Catholic in the 1960's and 1970's and we definitely learned about Limbo. However, people I know who are about 10 years younger than me have told me they never heard of it or if they did, it was in the context of something the Church no longer teaches.

I don't think "original sin" is solely Catholic. I'm pretty sure nearly all Christian denominations are all about original sin. I don't see that one ever getting the heave-ho because that was the entire purpose of Jesus coming to earth and dying on the cross.

How about Purgatory? Is that also on the chopping block?

FWIW, I don't think you can be "condemned" to Limbo since it's a place of waiting not of punishment.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. Gosh, I'm sure those babies will be

awfully glad to get outta THERE!

[SheilaT]

8. Because they

make it up as they go along. All religions do. And somehow convince gullible followers that it's true. Ever since I was about three years old I've questioned religious belief systems, and I was raised Catholic. When I was in high school I'd get into big fights with my mother who insisted I go to Mass every Sunday.

Most people don't really want to think for themselves, which, quite frankly, is the appeal of religions and other mass thought-control movements.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. It must be so lovely to be so...

so...superior!

Congratulations!

I'm still mired in stupidity but I kind of like it.

[SheilaT]

10. If thinking for myself

rather than just believing what others tells me makes me "superior", I suppose so, although I certainly don't think of it that way.

If you want to think of yourself as mired in stupidity, I must ask, why would you want to remain in that condition?

The essential core of religion is that you give up independent thought. That's also at the root of many mass political movements.

[Igel]

11. It was never doctrine.

Tradition, sure. Not doctrine. And the side issue.

Of course, the BBC usually gets things from their perspective, in subtle ways. Limbo's not the problem; what to do with the souls from dead babies, that's the problem.

Mostly just a Catholic thing. As for me, :popcorn:

[station agent]

13. How low can they go?

I should only go to pergatory for that one.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. It can't, no-one is suggesting doing so.

The Catholic Church has never officially committed itself one way or the other on the doctrine of Limbo, I believe; any Pope who cares to do so can say "no, no such place has ever existed" or "yes, such a place has always existed", and bind his successors to that. No-one has suggested saying "it used to exist but doesn't any more".