VATICAN CITY, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI, after deliberation by Vatican theologians, is abolishing the concept of Limbo that put the souls of unbaptized infants at risk.
While it was never a formal part of the church's doctrine, the existence of Limbo was taught until recently to Catholics around
the world, The Times of London said. Limbo was described in Britain as "a place of rest where the souls of the just who died before Christ were detained."
This week an international commission of theologians began its final deliberations on the concept of Limbo. Vatican sources told the newspaper it had concluded that all children who die do so in the expectation of "the universal salvation of God" and the "mediation of Christ", whether baptized or not.
A Times source said the theologians' finding basically says "that all children who die go to Heaven."
Finally, just as all dogs go to heaven, now all children go to heaven. What would we do without the pope, eh?
2 comments:
This interests me. My three siblings & myself were all baptized Catholic to placate my dad's side of the family, who never would have forgiven him if we'd been baptized in the Methodist Church & one of us had died in infancy. Belief in Limbo was a particularly strong & unpleasant superstition.
What's next? Purgatory?
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