Monday, April 23, 2007

No more limbo?

The current review of limbo began in 2004, when Pope John Paul II asked the commission to come up with "a more coherent and enlightened way" of describing the fate of innocent babes. (Source)

Pope Benedict, in his infallibility, has declared that limbo has never been a definitive truth of the faith. A document, "The hope of salvation for infants who die without being baptised" has been published to support the abolishment of limbo.

It said the study was made all the more pressing because "the number of nonbaptised infants has grown considerably, and therefore the reflection on the possibility of salvation for these infants has become urgent". (Source)

That is very interesting, but it appears to only apply to children that have died before baptism. Where are the souls of the virtuous pagans now that limbo is gone?

And entering led me with him on the bounds
Of the first circle, that surrounds the abyss.
Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard
Except of sighs, that made the eternal air
Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief
Felt by those multitudes, many and vast,
Of men, women, and infants. Then to me
The gentle guide: "Inquir'st thou not what spirits
Are these, which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin
Were blameless; and if aught they merited,
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs,
The portal to thy faith. If they before
The Gospel lived, they served not God aright;
And among such am I. For these defects,
And for no other evil, we are lost;
Only so far afflicted, that we live
Desiring without hope." So grief assailed
My heart at hearing this, for well I knew
Suspended in that Limbo many a soul
Of mighty worth.
-
Dante's Inferno, Canto IV

Does limbo still exist for Virgil, Dante's guide in the nine circles of hell? The idea of the virtuous pagans needs to be addressed. It is hardly fair to exclude a soul from heaven solely based on the knowledge that was available at the time of their birth. They, like the infants, were not baptised and so cannot enter heaven. Do they spend eternity in purgatory perhaps?

Stumble Upon Toolbar

No comments: