The pope has ruled that babies who die without baptism can now go to heaven. What has happened to those who?

Question

died before his ruling?
Retroactive legislation? That's how doctrine is made? HA HA HA. What's next. Adolf Hitler has gone to heaven?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_limbo

If I were a catholic I would have been EMBARRASSED!

Answer 1

I know, I know, Christianity is ludicrous.

Answer 2

No embarrassment is necessary. This is a non-issue for Catholics.

The Church has pondered the suggestion of Limbo for a few hundred years and has decided that it is not a good idea. Limbo was never official doctrine.

Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved." (Mark 16:15-16)

For centuries, people have wondered about children who died before they were baptized. The Bible does not explicitly state that they will go to heaven.

Limbo was suggested as the place where unbaptized babies went when they died. This idea was never official Church doctrine and has been rejected.

The Church now says that it is not sure what happens to unbaptized babies when they die but she entrusts them to the mercy of God.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings..." (Hebrews 13:8-9)

When a church has doctrine that constantly changes, it should be questioned! This is just one example of such changes.

Many churches have new teaching that contradicts things they have taught in the past. So, either the things they used to teach was not true or the things they teach now is not true. Two things that contradict both can't be true.

Jesus does not change, so our doctrine should not change! How can a church still be the true, original church if they no longer teach the same thing. If two churches teach different doctrine, they are not the same church. If we no longer teach the same doctrine as the church of the Bible did, then we are no longer the church of the Bible!

Answer 4

I really don't believe that the Pope or anyone else can set the requirements for entry to heaven, that's God's decision. I think what the message conveyed is that Baptism is a religious act to symbolically cleanse a person of sin. Since I know very few babies that are running amuck breaking the top 10, I don't see the need to dunk their little pampered hineys.

Answer 5

Prior to the Pope's ruling, many Roman Catholics believed that unbaptised babies went to Limbo, though this had never received official Church approval. However, the Pope's new ruling does not state that babies can now go to heaven - it states that the idea of limbo was an unduly restrictive idea of salvation and not considered a part of church doctrine. My interpretation of that is that he was, effectively, saying, was that the Church was wrong and that unbaptised babies never went to Limbo in the first place.

Answer 6

>>The pope has ruled that babies who die without baptism can now go to heaven.<<

No, he hasn't. "Ladaria [the commission's secretary-general] said no one could know for certain what becomes of unbaptized babies since Scripture is largely silent on the matter."

Answer 7

All children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven.

Answer 8

Actually, Adolf Hitler confessed and received last rites before his death, by dogmatic law, he went to heaven.

Answer 9

The pope is in fallible in all matters of the church, no matter how many previous decisions have been contradicted. I don't get it either. It's one of the many reason I left my childhood religion of Catholicism and became an Atheist.

Answer 10

You can't read either. limbo is not doctrine, never has been.

It's all a guess since there is NOTHING in the Bible that addresses it.

Answer 11

It never was a doctrine, just a belief.