Limbo No More
So i was reading the news and came across this little nugget:
Pope Abolishes Limbo
THE Vatican has determined that limbo does not exist, opening the gates of heaven to babies who die unbaptised, a member of a high-level theological commission.
“The many factors that we have considered … give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptised infants who die will be saved,” says a document published by the US magazine Origins with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI.
The medieval concept of limbo as a place where unbaptised infants spend eternity but without communion with God seems to reflect an “unduly restrictive view of salvation,” the document says.
The thought that stillborn babies, for example, would be relegated to a kind of no-man’s-land in the afterlife tormented generations of Catholic families.The idea of limbo – from the Latin for “edge” – was meant to address the paradox that unbaptised babies could not go to heaven because their original sin had not been expunged, but nor should they go to purgatory or hell.
In 1984, when Benedict headed the Vatican’s doctrinal enforcement body as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he said he was “personally” in favour of scrapping the 13th-century notion, which he termed a mere “hypothesis.”
Now, what is most interesting about this statement coming from the Vatican, is that they are basically saying they were wrong. So over hundreds of years, they were telling people that their babies weren’t going to heaven, when in fact they were.. or.. at least they think so. See this is the kicker, they have no idea, and instead are basing everything they say on pure theories with no evidence to back them up. There literally is nothing to show that anything they say is true, zero. Their assertion that limbo doesn’t exist is based on the fact that limbo is “unduly restrictive view of salvation,”; that in it’self sums up just about everything the Vatican says.
If something does not fit their idea of how the universe works; they simply.. throw the idea away. Even if there is no evidence pointing them in either direction, it’s simply a matter of whatever suits them. Telling believing families that their lost baby is not going to heaven doesn’t help them gain any more filled pews, so they tell them exactly what they want to hear; that their baby will live on forever in heaven.
While that might be a comforting thought, it’s also completely unfounded; but that never seems to bother the Vatican from saying anything.
May 05, 2007 @ 09:29:37
What I don’t like is that they announce it like it is a certitude. Like it has been proven or something.
But how can they prove something like this?
Take String Theory for example, or Quantum Physics in general. There is no way you can actually “see” if the theory is real, because the objects are so small that directly looking at it change their state. So these theories are based on observations on a larger scale, but there is still uncertinity about the real nature of the particles/waves/strings/whatever they are ;)
And the scientists all agree that those theories are uncertain.
I wonder why Vatican proclaims that the absence of Limbo is a certitude, while it is even less tangible than a quark or an electron…
Jul 10, 2007 @ 03:39:45
The “new” Pope also recently made up some new commandments as if the ones that are there need help. Search for them, they deal with road rage of all things. Apparently, the Vatican can do whatever they please… in spite of God.
It’s all irrelevant. Basing your belief on God on what man does is irresponsible.
Jul 10, 2007 @ 17:41:25
really? but god was created in man’s image, seems logical.
Aug 15, 2007 @ 03:21:15
But…if there is no limbo, what happens to those sticks, and the weird music?