Pope Banishes Limbo
You may have heard that the Pope got rid of Limbo. You may be interested in Brandon at Siris’ discussion of Limbo. Basically he suggests it is probably a weak rejection. The main issue is that children who die “before reason” aren’t cast into Limbo. This is roughly following the Mormon perspective. (Say Mosiah 3:16) Interestingly Brandon suggests that the Catholic notion of Limbo is actually sheol, which for Mormons is spirit prison where the dead await missionary work.
I apparently had misunderstood the Catholic notion of Limbo. I thought Catholics had roughly three degrees: Hell, Limbo and Heaven. They roughly correlated with the Mormon Telestial glory, Terrestrial glory, and Celestial glory. Indeed some of the Catholic descriptions of Limbo always struck me as being quite similar to D&C 76:71-79. So much so that I’ve often wonder if Joseph Smith had read about Limbo in some of the commentaries he had.
So does this mean that Catholics can’t do the limbo dance at Hawaiian or Caribbean themed parties? I mean, really: what does the pope have against limbo sticks? There’s that calypso song about limbo. It goes, “Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack go under limbo stick…” I wonder if the Pope hates that, too.
Comment by DKL — October 7, 2006 @ 4:17 am
Clark, there was an interesting disccussion about infant baptism over at Defensor Veritatis a while ago. Several Catholics on that thread argued that the Catholic Church never taught that infants who aren’t baptized who die are not saved or about limbo, St. Augustine and the statements of numerous Councils and Popes (as recently as 1951) notwithstanding. Thus, the Pope’s pending banishment of limbo doesn’t change anything at all, since it has never been taught, apparently.
Comment by john f. — October 7, 2006 @ 5:07 pm
yeah, but what about smart mouth purgatory? I ‘magine I’ll spend some time there, myself
Comment by JVT — October 7, 2006 @ 8:08 pm