Wasn't "infant" baptism introduced because of "Limbo"..?

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malachi_a_serva

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Now that there is no Limbo, should Baptism go back to adult baptism? Perhaps I am incorrect in my thinking, but I recall as I was taught that the church moved to Baptising Infants to help infants that would die etc…so they wouldn’t go into “Limbo”…
 
No, Limbo was always just a theological speculation, not a doctrine. Infants were baptized because entire families entered the Church at the same time, and the whole family was baptized including infants. Also, families (and the Church) saw no need to withhold the grace of Baptism from infants, provided their parents or godparents supplied the requisite faith, and promised to raise them devoutly in the Church.
 
No, that is not true. Infant baptism predated any discussion (known to us today) of the salvation of unbaptized infants. Augustine used the practice of infant baptism to argue for the necessity of baptism for the salvation of infants, not the other way around. Although it’s certainly true that his doctrine of original sin led to the universal acceptance of infant baptism (whereas previously it seems to have been optional).

Limbo is actually a later softening and clarification of Augustine’s doctrine that infants are “lightly” damned. By the time any clear doctrine of limbo developed, infant baptism was well established.

Belief that all infants are saved might lead to less urgency with regard to infant baptism, but there’s no reason why it would lead to abolishing the practice.

Edwin

P.S. I’m responding to malachi’s original post.
 
**Catechism of the Catholic Church

1252** The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole “households” received baptism, infants may also have been baptized.

1282 Since the earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit; children are baptized in the faith of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom.

1250 Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called. The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.
 
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malachi_a_serva:
Now that there is no Limbo, should Baptism go back to adult baptism? Perhaps I am incorrect in my thinking, but I recall as I was taught that the church moved to Baptising Infants to help infants that would die etc…so they wouldn’t go into “Limbo”…
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Did the Church formally define that there is no such place called Limbo? I heard that it is currently under debate in Rome.

Ken
 
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kleary:
Did the Church formally define that there is no such place called Limbo? I heard that it is currently under debate in Rome.

Ken
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I think I read they are discussing it. I heard a priest on EWTN say that originally the word “Limbo” came about because people wanted to know what happened to unbaptized babies and since they didn’t really know, Limbo was the word representing we don’t really know. And if you think about it, how do we use this word secularly? I’m in limbo = I don’t know about it/what will happen etc.
 
Has anyone heard of the Vatican’s discussion on Limbo being reported by the secular media? I was in English class and the teacher tried to tell me that the Pope and the cardinals had just decided that Purgatory was no longer doctrine. Naturally I was like :confused: and I said that couldnt be, maybe they reported it wrong. So he said i should research it. He was specifically listening to NPR. But anyway has anyone heard of this?
 
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lotrgirlsmodo2:
Has anyone heard of the Vatican’s discussion on Limbo being reported by the secular media? I was in English class and the teacher tried to tell me that the Pope and the cardinals had just decided that Purgatory was no longer doctrine. Naturally I was like :confused: and I said that couldnt be, maybe they reported it wrong. So he said i should research it. He was specifically listening to NPR. But anyway has anyone heard of this?
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LOL, that’s just not true, and you should actually press your teacher to prove that allegation, which is seriously misleading.
 
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lotrgirlsmodo2:
Has anyone heard of the Vatican’s discussion on Limbo being reported by the secular media? I was in English class and the teacher tried to tell me that the Pope and the cardinals had just decided that Purgatory was no longer doctrine. Naturally I was like :confused: and I said that couldn’t be, maybe they reported it wrong. So he said i should research it. He was specifically listening to NPR. But anyway has anyone heard of this?
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Purgatory is “de fide” dogma. It cannot be changed. What is under discussion is Limbo, which is and has always only been a “theological hypothesis”

I found the following links which may be of help in getting a handle on the issue:

christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/148/51.0.html

and

catholica.pontifications.net/?p=1110

Keep the Faith
jmt
 
Contrary to what is being taught today by many, the teaching of Limbo was not merely speculation: it is a doctrinal teaching of the Church.

It is true that the dogma has never been defined, but that does not mean it is merely speculation. Limbo has been taught by the ordinary - and extraordinary (i.e. infallible) magisterium over the past 2000 years. The only question about Limbo that needs clarification by the Church, is whether or not the unbaptized child suffers to actual fires of hell, as some have taught, or whether they are in a state of natural happiness, as other have taught.

The following article gives many of the magesterial quotes regarding Limbo.

thecatholicfaith.blogspot.com/

Another good source is the Catholic encyclopedia at newadvent.org:

newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm
 
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USMC:
Contrary to what is being taught today by many, the teaching of Limbo was not merely speculation: it is a doctrinal teaching of the Church.

It is true that the dogma has never been defined, but that does not mean it is merely speculation. Limbo has been taught by the ordinary - and extraordinary (i.e. infallible) magisterium over the past 2000 years. The only question about Limbo that needs clarification by the Church, is whether or not the unbaptized child suffers to actual fires of hell, as some have taught, or whether they are in a state of natural happiness, as other have taught.

The following article gives many of the magesterial quotes regarding Limbo.

thecatholicfaith.blogspot.com/

Another good source is the Catholic encyclopedia at newadvent.org:

newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm
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Correction. The first link is to the wrong location. The following is the link to the article that gives the magisterial quotes regarding Limbo:

seattlecatholic.com/a051207.html
 
Thanks for all the help! 😃 I told my teacher what’s what this morning.
 
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USMC:
Contrary to what is being taught today by many, the teaching of Limbo was not merely speculation: it is a doctrinal teaching of the Church.

It is true that the dogma has never been defined, but that does not mean it is merely speculation. Limbo has been taught by the ordinary - and extraordinary (i.e. infallible) magisterium over the past 2000 years. The only question about Limbo that needs clarification by the Church, is whether or not the unbaptized child suffers to actual fires of hell, as some have taught, or whether they are in a state of natural happiness, as other have taught.

The following article gives many of the magesterial quotes regarding Limbo.

thecatholicfaith.blogspot.com/

Another good source is the Catholic encyclopedia at newadvent.org:

newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm
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Are you sure that’s about limbo and not the place for the dead (not hell) prior to the coming of Christ.
 
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thistle:
Are you sure that’s about limbo and not the place for the dead (not hell) prior to the coming of Christ.
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Yes, I’m sure. If you read through the Catholic encyclopedia, it discusses both places: “Limbus Patrum”, where those who lived prior to the coming of Jesus dwelt, and also “Limbus Infantium”, where the sold of unbaptized children go.
 
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