Saturday, April 21, 2007

Limbo no longer...

The dude did something right for a change. Pope Benedict, whom I truly dislike, has changed the teaching on unbaptized Catholic infants. Instead of saying they go to Limbo, they now have their Get-out-of-jail-free cards and go to Heaven, after all.

"It stressed that none of its findings should be taken as diminishing the need for parents to baptize infants.

'Rather ... they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the church.'

Vatican watchers hailed the decision as both a sensitive and significant move by Benedict. "


Bravo, Pope Benedict. There might be hope for you yet.

2 comments:

Aristotle said...

It ought to be noted that the media, as usual, got this one wrong. This theological commission has no magisterial authority and the Pope simply accepted a report. He did not endorse its teachings and has not taught that there is no such thing as Limbo. No Church teaching changed, even though the media, as usual, jumps at any opportunity to make it look as if the Church is changing. It is absolutely reprehensible coverage and proves that one should wait for documents to be taught by bishops, and NOT by secular media, who wouldn’t know anything about Limbo or Catholic doctrine if it jumped up and bit them. The media clearly has a secular and “progressive” agenda, which would love to see Church changes in other areas, such as women in the priesthood, etc. Those things won’t change either.

People who are clamoring and saying that Limbo never made any sense anyway simply don't understand theology at all, nor do they understand Catholic teaching.

For further information, check out the blog, Zadok the Roman.

Shadowspun said...

My interpretation would be that the Pope allowing the report to be published could be considered tacit approval. I take it as such, anyway.

However, I guess my years of Catechism make me unable to understand Catholic teaching. I guess the priests and nuns who taught me didn't understand it, either. None of those that taught me approved of the idea of Limbo.

The link you provided had a bit about allowing Limbo to be considered on its own merits by each person. It never seemed logical to me to punish innocents, nor to my mother or grandmother, both devout Catholics. But I guess they don't qualify as understanding Catholicism in your mind, either.