Thanks. I read the whole thing, including the comments by other readers. Take a look.
Dan Hunter April 23, 2007 at 7:20 am
“So Was St Augustine a bumbling idiot to say that unbaptised infants go to limbo?
What other dunder-headed declarations did he make?
If he,the greatest Father of the Church was wrong about this,what else was he wrong about?
Until the Holy Father pronounces The Limbo of the Infants non-existant,from the Chair of Peter,we are not obliged to believe that what has been taught for over one thousand years by Popes and Fathers is no longer true.
God bless you.”
Dan Hunter was wrong. Augustine wrote:
“It may therefore be correctly affirmed, that such infants as quit the body without being baptized will be involved in the mildest condemnation of all. That person, therefore, greatly deceives both himself and others, who teaches that they will not be involved in condemnation; whereas the apostle says: ‘Judgment from one offence to condemnation’ (Romans 5:16), and again a little after: ‘By the offence of one upon all persons to condemnation’ (Romans 5:18).”(On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants (Book I, Chapter 21)
newadvent.org/fathers/15011.htm)
Here’s a bit more:
Several of the early Church Fathers addressed this issue. St. Gregory Nazianzen (d. 389) posited, “It will happen, I believe, …that those last mentioned [infants dying without baptism] will neither be admitted by the just judge to the glory of Heaven nor condemned to suffer punishment, since though unsealed [by baptism], they are not wicked. …For from that fact that one does not merit punishment it does not follow that he is worthy of being honored, any more that it follows that one who is not worthy of a certain honor deserve on that account to be punished” (Orations, XL, 23). Tertullian (d. 250) and St. Ambrose (d. 397) agreed that only those souls culpable of unrepented mortal sin would be damned to Hell. Given this line of thought, the idea of some intermediary place or limbo existed for these souls.
On the other hand, St. Augustine (d. 430) denied any notion of such an intermediary place or limbo. He believed that unbaptized children would be sent neither to Hell since they did not merit Heaven due to original sin nor to Purgatory since that period of purification eventually leads to Heaven. However, he conceded that their punishment would be the mildest of all (De peccatorum meritis, I, xxi).
Dissatisfied with St. Augustine’s harsh teaching, the Scholastics of the Middle Ages, including St. Anselm (d. 1099), Abelard, and Peter Lombard, revisited the issue. St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) laid the foundation for the “limbo” explanation. He emphasized that original sin was a sin of nature inherited from our parents rather than a sin freely committed. Since Hell was the place of eternal punishment for unrepentant mortal sinners who had rejected God and since the unbaptized could not enter Heaven, those unbaptized infants should be in another place, perhaps in a place and state of limbo. While he also believed that the loss of Heaven and the Beatific Vision was a far greater punishment than any sensible torments of Hell, Aquinas added that these souls do not have the knowledge of what they have missed. Essentially, Aquinas leaves them in a state of ignorant bliss. In all, Aquinas" theological speculation was regarded as the best explanation for this problem.
catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0145.html
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