Is there Limbo? Well, ...

At the barbershop yesterday the issue of abortion came up (I had just come from praying outside Planned Parenthood), and one of the barbers asked, "Whatever happened to Limbo?" He noted that he had been taught that was where the souls of aborted babies go, and that he had not heard anyone talking about it in recent years.

I responded that the Church wasn't really teaching Limbo as a formal doctrine, that it was more of a popular belief for years. But I didn't know much in great detail about it.

I do remember hearing about it when I was younger. I recall in Catholic grade school imagining it as a place where there were all these giggling, cooing babies. They seemed happy, but it struck me as kind of boring. And I also remember talk that a kind of Limbo existed for adults who had not been baptized, but who had led good lives, so they were not condemned to Hell, but could not get into Heaven, which, of course, was Catholic.

A place for some good Protestants, good Buddhists, Ghandi, and the like.

By the time I was a teen I'd already begun to think that Catholic-only notion seemed unfair, and that there were likely many good non-Catholics in heaven.

But the topic here is babies and Limbo.

After that conversation at the barbershop, I went home and did a little research.

There's a spate of articles about it - and debate over it. There were even people who declared that if you don't believe in Limbo, YOU ARE NOT CATHOLIC.

Right.

Then I came across THE HOPE OF SALVATION FOR INFANTS  WHO DIE WITHOUT BEING BAPTISED from the International Theological Commission:

The International Theological Commission has studied the question of the fate of un-baptised infants, bearing in mind the principle of the “hierarchy of truths” and the other theological principles of the universal salvific will of God, the unicity and insuperability of the mediation of Christ, the sacramentality of the Church in the order of salvation, and the reality of Original Sin. In the contemporary context of cultural relativism and religious pluralism the number of non-baptized infants has grown considerably, and therefore the reflection on the possibility of salvation for these infants has become urgent. The Church is conscious that this salvation is attainable only in Christ through the Spirit. But the Church, as mother and teacher, cannot fail to reflect upon the fate of all men, created in the image of God, and in a more particular way on the fate of the weakest members of the human family and those who are not yet able to use their reason and freedom.

It is clear that the traditional teaching on this topic has concentrated on the theory of limbo, understood as a state which includes the souls of infants who die subject to original sin and without baptism, and who, therefore, neither merit the beatific vision, nor yet are subjected to any punishment, because they are not guilty of any personal sin. This theory, elaborated by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages, never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium, even if that same Magisterium did at times mention the theory in its ordinary teaching up until the Second Vatican Council. It remains therefore a possible theological hypothesis. However, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), the theory of limbo is not mentioned. Rather, the Catechism teaches that infants who die without baptism are entrusted by the Church to the mercy of God, as is shown in the specific funeral rite for such children. The principle that God desires the salvation of all people gives rise to the hope that there is a path to salvation for infants who die without baptism (cf. CCC, 1261), and therefore also to the theological desire to find a coherent and logical connection between the diverse affirmations of the Catholic faith: the universal salvific will of God; the unicity of the mediation of Christ; the necessity of baptism for salvation; the universal action of grace in relation to the sacraments; the link between original sin and the deprivation of the beatific vision; the creation of man “in Christ”.

The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness, even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in Revelation. However, none of the considerations proposed in this text to motivate a new approach to the question may be used to negate the necessity of baptism, nor to delay the conferral of the sacrament. Rather, there are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible to do for them that what would have been most desirable— to baptize them in the faith of the Church and incorporate them visibly into the Body of Christ. ...

This above is part of the introduction. The rest of the document goes on to explain the theology of the idea. Interesting read.

Bottom line: It's not official, doctrinal teaching, but it is not dismissed. It is described as "a possible theological hypothesis."

Sounds as if one can believe in it, but one is not required to.

So, maybe there is a place where Ghandi is making all those babies giggle.

Pax et bonum