Limbo?

[CountrySteve]

Ok, so i was reading this book called my way of life, and it said unbaptized baby’s and idiots and imbeciles go to limbo never heard of that before, oh and the book is a simplified version of St. Thomas’s Summa, but i thought limbo wasn’t a Catholic teaching?

 

[YoungTradCath]

Limbo was never part of the Deposit of Faith. It was and is a theological speculation. You are not required to believe in it.

 

[Joe_5859]

YTC is correct. Limbo is a theological hypothesis put forth by some over the centuries but was never doctrine. One can subscribe to it, but there is certainly no obligation to. Indeed, a relatively recent document from the International Theological Commission leans towards discounting limbo. At this point, Catholics can believe in it or not.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

You have gotten good answers on this. Limbo is a theological theory that became so widely accepted in the Western Church that it became a standard part of catechesis, but it was never formally defined as a Catholic doctrine. Therefore it remains optional for Catholics. You can accept the theory of limbo or choose to doubt it, without heresy either way.

I’d like to point out that I assume this book is an older one, or an older translation of a book written in another language, and uses the terms “idiot” and “imbecil” in their old literal meanings, essentially what we would call developmentally disabled people today (unless a still newer politically correct term has already been invented, as it looks like will happen periodically until the Crack of Doom).

Limbo would apply to unbaptized people who, due to extreme youth or developmental disabilities, never attain the use of reason before death. If they were baptized, logically the person would automatically go to heaven.

All this assumes the infant or disabled person is not miraculously granted the use of reason and a chance to make a choice for or against God immediately before their death. I personally lean towards the theory that these people are in fact given such a choice, with Limbo being a theoretical state that an unbaptized innocent would enter into if God ever allowed that situation to arise.

 

[Genesis315]

The common teaching of the Church is that the pains of Hell are due to actual sins committed, whereas the punishment of original sin is the deprivation of the beatific vision. Theologians have had two main opinions on the experience those who die in original sin only, but have not committed any actual sins (basically unbaptized infants and unbaptized persons incapable of sin). They all must agree that they are deprived of the beatific vision (this is dogma), but some argue that the deprivation of the beatific vision is painful and tormenting, and others that it is merely a state of natural happiness (rather than supernatural happiness). This latter state is what is called Limbo.

So, as Catholics, we are permitted to hold either opinion regarding those who die in original sin. We cannot say that those who die in original sin are saved.

That being said, while we acknowledge that God has only revealed one way to remit original sin–baptism–we also acknowledge that God can remit it in ways known only to himself. Therefore, it is permissable to hope that God might in an extraordinary way cleanse an infant of original sin who has otherwise died without baptism. Such a soul would therefore not die in original sin, but with sanctifying grace and would therefore go to Heaven. In the Summa, St. Thomas says God could do this as a kind of privilege if he chose, but He has not revealed it one way or the other.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

The common teaching of the Church is that the pains of Hell are due to actual sins committed, whereas the punishment of original sin is the deprivation of the beatific vision. Theologians have had two main opinions on the experience those who die in original sin only, but have not committed any actual sins (basically unbaptized infants and unbaptized persons incapable of sin). They all must agree that they are deprived of the beatific vision (this is dogma), but some argue that the deprivation of the beatific vision is painful and tormenting, and others that it is merely a state of natural happiness (rather than supernatural happiness). This latter state is what is called Limbo.

So, as Catholics, we are permitted to hold either opinion regarding those who die in original sin. We cannot say that those who die in original sin are saved.

That being said, while we acknowledge that God has only revealed one way to remit original sin–baptism–we also acknowledge that God can remit it in ways known only to himself. Therefore, it is permissable to hope that God might in an extraordinary way cleanse an infant of original sin who has otherwise died without baptism. Such a soul would therefore not die in original sin, but with sanctifying grace and would therefore go to Heaven. In the Summa, St. Thomas says God could do this as a kind of privilege if he chose, but He has not revealed it one way or the other.

Dante combines the two. The outermost circle of hell he calls Limbo and it seems to be a very pleasant place, yet as Virgil prepares to return there he is visibly anxious about the suffering it entails (Virgil would be there because he was, in Dante’s imagination, a just man who nevertheless did not have faith in Christ, not even the implicit faith of the pre-Christian Jews. Thus he too died in a state of Original Sin but not personal mortal sin). I think the implied point is valid: even if Limbo were a garden of earthly delights, one would still be deprived of God forever and so still share in the principle torment of hell.

 

[Jimmygill88]

I’ve never believed in Limbo. It was a pagan pre-Christian belief. However what are we to believe when the Apostles Creed states that Jesus ‘descended in to Hell’. We were taught that Limbo was a place in hell were we not? I know that someone will be able to shed light in this.

 

[Genesis315]

I’ve never believed in Limbo. It was a pagan pre-Christian belief. However what are we to believe when the Apostles Creed states that Jesus ‘descended in to Hell’. We were taught that Limbo was a place in hell were we not? I know that someone will be able to shed light in this.

Different Limbo (yeah, it’s a bit confusing). That was what is called the “Limbo of the Fathers” or, more biblically, “Abraham’s bosom.” It was the abode of the Old Testament just who had died where they waited for Christ to open Heaven for them.

This thread is about the “limbo of the infants,” which would be the outskirts of hell/damnation (limbo comes from a word meaning outskirts) that those who died in original sin alone without actual sins might go if they were not cleansed of original sin by baptism or some other means before death. It’s called Limbo of the Infants because they’re pretty much the only one’s who might die in original sin while not committing any actual sins.