Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries

By Philip Pullella
44 minutes ago

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church has effectively
buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition
and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went.

In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological
Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of
salvation," according to the U.S.-based Catholic News Service, which
obtained a copy on Friday.

The thumbs-down verdict on limbo had been expected for years and
the document, called "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die
Without Being Baptised," was seen as most likely to be final since
limbo was never formally part of Church doctrine.

Pope Benedict authorized the publication of the document.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070420/ts_nm/pope_limbo_dc

[Xipe Totec]

1. Hermes Conrad will be devastated

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. When I read the headline I thought it ment this!

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Limbo is in limbo?

Good. It was a painful concept for my Roman Catholic friends to think that an innocent baby lost the opportunity for salvation.

[Fresh_Start]

4. In a 5:4 decision, the USSC decides that purgatory exists

because thats most consistent with traditional teachings.

[Xipe Totec]

14. It's down the hall, next to the vomitory

[Goblinmonger]

5. I know this is about limbo

and not purgatory, but I immediately thought of this:

Vacation in Purgatory

[valerief]

6. Why does the Pope hate Caribbean dances? nt

[cosmik debris]

7. He's too old, and it's too loud! n/t

[Dorian Gray]

11. Funny.

:)

[Just-plain-Kathy]

8. Stephen Colbert spoke about this back when he was on the Daily Show...

...during a "This Week in God" bit.

It has to do with the fact that countries like Africa refuse to accept a religion that believes un-baptized babies cant go to heaven.

[54anickel]

9. I remembered this article from last fall - Pope tries to win hearts and minds by saving souls of ...

Pope tries to win hearts and minds by saving souls of unbaptised babies

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article659379.ece

THE Pope will cast aside centuries of Catholic belief later this week by abolishing formally the concept of limbo, in a gesture calculated to help to win the souls of millions of babies in the developing world for Christ.

All the evidence suggests that Benedict XVI never believed in the idea anyway. But in the fertile evangelisation zones of Africa and Asia, the Pope — an acknowledged authority on all things Islamic — is only too aware that Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to Heaven. For the Church, looking to spread the faith in countries with a high infant mortality rate, now is a good time to make it absolutely clear that stillborn babies of Christian mothers go direct to Heaven, too.

Anyone who deludes themselves that Muslims do not know about limbo would be wrong. Dante put Jerusalem’s conqueror Saladin in limbo in his Inferno, along with Ovid and Homer and other pre-Christian villains and heroes.

Even though it has never been part of the Church’s doctrine formally, the existence of limbo was taught until recently to Catholics around the world. In Britain it was in the Penny Catechism, approved by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, that declared limbo “a place of rest where the souls of the just who died before Christ were detained”.

But its lack of doctrinal authority has long failed to impress the Pope. who was recorded as saying before his election: “Personally, I would let it drop, since it has always been only a theological hypothesis.”

more...

A Lutheran Pastor friend made the comment "doing the right thing for the wrong reason...still a good thing"

[skepticscott]

12. You've hit the nail right on the head

This is nothing but a membership drive. Even if such things as heaven, hell, limbo and purgatory are anything but made up fantasy worlds, neither the Catholic Church's leaders nor anyone else knows squat about them, but they have to invent something to make people feel better about the harshness of their religion. If the CC were to go solely by what the Bible actually says, they would have to tell their members that the soul of every baby born without being baptized, and of every aborted embryo and every miscarried fetus is going to roast in hell for all eternity because they did not accept Jesus as their savior, and that is the only way to get to heaven. Needless to say, the collection plates would get a lot lighter if they did that.

For people who curse and moan that there is no "right to abortion" in the Constitution and that the whole idea was invented by the Supreme Court, they sure are quick to invent concepts like limbo, which are merely the products of their own wishful thinking and are found nowhere in the (alleged) word of God.

[shain from kane]

10. Time to ditch that infallible shit, too. And take Christ down from your graven images.

[More Than A Feeling]

13. I challenge the Catholic Church to prove that limbo does not exist.

Since they and other supernaturalists frequently ask non-believers to prove gods don't exist, fair is fair.

[moobu2]

15. If this isn’t proof positive they're just making shit up, nothing is.

[DeSwiss]

16. Study?

They did a limbo study? With like test tubes and bunsen burners and stuff? I won't even ask about what kind of protocols or reference books they used.

So now they've cast even the little babies out of limbo. {shaking head} And they have left the little children's fate to the whims and caprice of god, eh?

So then what about "The Guff?" I was always told that this the the place where Church doctrine taught for years that babies come from. Is that no longer true too?

And what about purgatory??? You know, hell's suburbs. The place for those who were only moderately sinful? Is that next?

Geez. Its getting so that everything seems that it has to be all black or all white with these guys. No more gray areas. God must be downsizing.

Maybe the little babies can still work something out with Zeus....

[saltpoint]

17. O darn. I was hoping they'd buried 'Limbaugh.' Spelling counts, I guess.