NEWS: No More Limbo

POLITICS: No More Limbo

Catholic religious dogma has it all figured out. After you die, if you've been good, you go to heaven. If you were bad, you go to purgatory only until you've sorted things out, then you go to heaven. If you were really bad, you go to hell. Simple, efficient, easy. Right? Well, almost. The system raises some thorny theological questions. According to Catholic doctrine, baptism is the cleansing of original sin, and that, coupled with an acceptance of Jesus, is required in order to gain entry into heaven. So what about all the people who have lived perfectly good, moral lives but were never exposed to Christianity? Or unbaptized babies who die before they ever had a chance? That's where limbo comes in. Limbo has never been a formal part of Catholic religious doctrine, but has been widely referred to amongst theologians. The concept dates at least as far back as Gregory Nazianzen , who in the fourth century postulated the existence of an alternative state of the afterlife "that infants dying without Baptism will neither be admitted by the Just Judge to the glory of Heaven, nor condemned to suffer punishment, since, though unsealed by Baptism, they are not wicked…" and was later accepted by many theologians as being something of a nice place but not as good as heaven.

The current pope, Benedict XVI, described his disdain for the concept of limbo over twenty years ago in his Ratzinger Report, and his ascendancy to the papacy has given him authority to canonize his position on the matter, which has now been accomlished by his allowing the publication of "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised" which officially disavows any endorsement of the concept of limbo.

All of which is very nice for those unbaptized babies. But there may be more to this than simply a refutation of a doctrine that was never fully fleshed out. Benedict's quizzical explanation for lack of belief in the concept, that limbo was"only a theological hypothesis" and "never a defined truth of faith" seems somewhat self-contradictory, since defined truths don't really require faith in the first place. The truth is that while Catholicism is still strong in the United States and Europe, its two biggest areas of growth are in Africa as well as in Asia, particularly in developing countries. Not coincidentally, these countries also suffer extremely high rates of infant mortality when compared with countries where Catholicism has historically been strong but is no longer growing at an appreciable rate. Could Benedict's push to reconsider the concept of limbo also be a shrewd marketing ploy to recruit converts to the religion? It seems reasonable enough, as Catholicism might be a harder sell to people who believe that it represents a philosophy explicitly stating that any of their children who died are forever condemned to sit around in a place that's just OK.

That line just gives me the creeps, especially coming out of the Catholic church.

You might want to read that line within the context of this whole article, then.

Now if you're cynical enough to view it as yet another campaign to get folks to join the catholic church, fine, but Ratzinger is a reputed theologist, so it is more than likely that he gave this all some serious thought before "making it official", which he did knowing that his authority can not be contested within the catholic church.

At worst, it would mean that those of us who do adhere to the church's doctrine have one less reason to rush in to the church to get our babies baptized.

I read that and couldn't help but giggle like a little kid...

Where are the slaadi and githyanki going to live now?

This might be the most informative, even-handed article ever written on SuicideGirls. Thank god for legionnaire. Give journalism lessons to FearTheReaper for me.

Concordant Opposition? After all, the Pope didn't say anything about that.

What about Pandemonium or whatever they're calling it now? Especially the gith, as they are definitely more evil than Chaotic Neutral.

It's true, Ratzinger didn't mention that, either. It's just hard for me to keep up with all these extraplanar reformations.

Ratzinger's such a power-gaming munchkin. Glad I don't game with his group.

Definitely a candidate for the invocation of Article Two.

I hear he'll cave in and let John Paul II take the Saint PrC. Cheesy.

now they are accepting unbaptized babies?!?!?! what's next, the gays?

Heaven forbid!

QFT

They hope so!

what i find "somewhat self-contradictory" is the whole idea that these babies are being born with original sin and need to be baptised in the first place, but now the damn pope is claiming these unbaptised babies are "innocent" just so he can abolish what is only a theory to begin with! what the fuck??

Because everything in religion is only a theory, and the line between church doctrine and mainstream beliefs is so muddled, that oftentimes there is no clarification between the two.

This is an outrage. When I get to heaven I do not expect it to be full of heathen babies.

Well, not exactly. Every piece of official doctrine is supposed to be "defined truth" - and therefore an article of faith. This is no different.

Ahh, the child-molester jokes. Always hilarious and relevant; never, ever one-note and annoying. Let's see how much more spring that dead horse has got, eh?

yeah, the only reason i was baptized was because my hardcore irish catholic grandmother (bless her heart) didn't want me to end up in limbo. well now i'm definitely going straight to hell.

Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement. To be perfectly fair, FearTheReaper has his own writing style, which, while fairly different from my own, often works pretty well. At least I think so.

What, don't you have a sense of humor?

They should just be like the Mormons. That way they could just baptize all the dead people posthumously.