The Pope says that Limbo ain't real --?

Question

And I wonder how Catholics feel.
For years they were taught
It was real. Now it's not.
***

And who wants a tenner badly enough to come up with the last line?

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-04-20T161421Z_01_L20287216_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-POPE-LIMBO-COL.XML

@ dog sneeze: And I'm a former catholic and I was taught that Limbo is real. I don't think I'm the only one.

Answer 1

The Pope says that limbo ain't real-- But the Macarena is hell.

And anyone who's spent hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles, knows full well that there really is a purgatory.

Answer 2

This is a non-issue with 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

In writings before his election as Pope in 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made it clear he believed the concept of limbo should be abandoned because it was "only a theological hypothesis" and "never a defined truth of faith."

The Catholic Church's official catechism, issued in 1992 after decades of work, dropped the mention of limbo.

In his Divine Comedy, Dante placed virtuous pagans and great classical philosophers, including Plato and Socrates, in limbo.

I do't understand. If it was "never a defined truth of faith", why was it a part of the official cathechism? And why did it take "decades of work" to drop it in 1992? Once dropped in 1992 wouldn't it be clear to all that it wasn't real? Why would there need to be discussion about it now in 2007?

Answer 4

what an atheist has to assert with regard to the deliberations of the Roman Catholic Church on the doctrine of limbo: "can we even conceive of a project extra intellectually forlorn than this? merely think of what those deliberations could be like. Is there the slightest possiblity that somebody will recent info indicating the eternal way forward for unbaptized toddlers after dying? How can any knowledgeable individual think of this something yet a hilarious, terrifying and unconscionable waste of time? while one considers the undeniable fact that it is the very organization that has produced and sheltered an elite military of baby molesters, the entire organization starts off to exude an exceedingly diabolical air of secret of misspent human capacity."

Answer 5

The Catholic Church is very good at changing it's doctrine. Don't forget that for hundreds of years they said that it was a Mortal Sin to eat meat on Fridays. According to them, people burned in Hell for having a Liverwurst Sandwich on Friday if they didn't confess it before they died. Then one day some Pope came along and said, "Never Mind, Liverwurst is O.K. on Friday". Imagine the souls who burned their behinds for centuries and then one day a Pope decides to say, don't worry about it. The Pope can say anything he wants because they made a rule that you can't ask him questions. He just makes statements and then walks away from them. Do you wonder why the Catholic Churches in Europe are empty?

Answer 6

Limbo was not part of doctrine. First introduced by Pope Pius X 1905, but later reversed by Pope Paul II. It arose from the unbaptised unborn and the thief on the cross who went to paradise, yet was presumably unbaptised plus Old Testament language of "bosom of Abraham" which made believers think there was some kind of holding area.

See my response to self-described atheist Sam Harris' book "A Letter to a Christian Nation" which refers to limbo among other beliefs by Christians at:
http://www.epinions.com/content_351023107716

Answer 7

This coming from an orginization that has claimed the pope is infallable.
The catholic church I feel make a number of changes in the near future, this is to bring back all of the breakaway churches that broke off in the middle ages.
This would make the name "Catholic" prophetic it means universal, that is the stated goal. convert everyone to catholicism or matryr them.
the thinking is its better to lose one life than lose one soul.
I always thought conversion was a one on one thing between you and God not you, the bishop and a red hot poker.
Sounds evil to me.

Answer 8

Limbo was a theory that tried to cater for mainly innocent children who died without baptism. It was never dogma. However no new teaching other than 'hope' has been formulated. The fact is no one really knows for sure what happens to the unbaptised when they die.

Cheers :-)

Answer 9

I just want to know what happened to all those souls that were in Limbo before the Catholic Church did away with it.

Answer 10

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made it clear he believed the concept of limbo should be abandoned because it was "ONLY a theological hypothesis" and "NEVER a defined truth of faith."