Thursday, March 5, 2009

bye-bye, limbo!

this is kinda old news, but anyway, i just heard about it yesterday and was quite intrigued...

didja know that in april of last year, the vatican pretty much put an end to the idea of "limbo"?  as per the church, limbo is where the souls of the unbaptized  babies go.  

because the church teaches that "baptism is the ordinary way of salvation", it then follows that unbaptized babies are not saved. 



but, after 3 years of mulling and writing, a 30-member International Theological Commissiona came up with a 41-page document entititled "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized", it is now believed that the concept of limbo reflects an "unduly restrictive view of salvation." 

(ummmm..... ya..................)


current catholic teaching states that unbaptized infants are entrusted to God's mercy. this new document, though, abolishes limbo, by saying that "God can therefore give the grace of baptism without the sacrament being conferred, and this fact should particularly be recalled when the conferring of baptism would be impossible".

by saying all this though, it complicates the other key catholic dogmas... which leads the church to then say that putting an end to limbo does not deny that all salvation comes through Christ and in some way through the church, it said, but it requires a more careful understanding of how this may work.

and then more explanations are made for this "careful understanding". 

silly?  a li'l bit, i think.

read more about it here.

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