Limbo rocks!Ask some people today about limbo, and shimmying under a broomstick comes to mind. But for those steeped in the extraordinary mechanisms and machinations of pre-Vatican II theology, limbo is kind of an outer precinct of heaven, close but not quite the real thing, where good people who, through no fault of their own, never got their ticket to heaven punched by Baptism. The recent Roman discussions about the fate of limbo these days makes me think back to my own grammar school days in the early '50s when things like limbo were important lessons to learn. These were the things that made us distinctively Catholic and, by today's standards, foolishly Catholic. I'm not sure too many people really ever believed that an unbaptized infant who died would be consigned to limbo by an all-loving God. Regardless, it was a big part of Catholic paraphernalia. Checking the old catechism catechism (kăt`əkĭzəm) [Gr.,=oral instruction], originally oral instruction in religion, later written instruction. Catechisms are usually written in the form of questions and answers. , Father McGuire's New Baltimore New Baltimore is the name of several towns in the United States:
n. A Christian creed traditionally ascribed to the 12 Apostles and used typically in public worship services in the West. that Christ descended into hell?" tells us that hell actually means limbo, and Jesus' soul "descended into a place or state of rest, called limbo, where the souls of the just were waiting for him." The next question asks why. Answer: "Christ went to limbo to announce to the souls waiting there the joyful news that he had reopened heaven to mankind." And the last of the limbo questions, #97 gets a bit technical. "Where was Christ's body while his soul was in limbo?" Answer: While his soul was in limbo, Christ's body was in the holy sepulchre SEPULCHRE. The place where a corpse is buried. The violation of sepulchres is a misdemeanor at common law. Vide Dead bodies. ." In that catechism there was no mention of the popular belief that limbo was the destination for unbaptized souls, either infants who died prior to baptism or otherwise good adults who remained unbaptized. Limbo completely disappears in the most recent 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Catholic Church, first published in French in 1992 by the authority of Pope John Paul II. . Article 12 details entry requirements for heaven, purgatory purgatory (pûrg`ətôr'ē) [Lat.,=place of purging], in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the state after death in which the soul destined for heaven is purified. , and hell, but makes no mention of limbo. How something so concrete and clear in one catechism completely evaporates in another catechism is one of the great mysteries of the faith. I recall a particular test in grammar school religion class in which I missed what was then the correct answer about limbo. Given the probable annihilation annihilation In physics, a reaction in which a particle and its antiparticle (see antimatter) collide and disappear. The annihilation releases energy equal to the original mass m multiplied by the square of the speed of light c, or E = m of limbo, whom do I see about restoring my grade in religion class? PETER GILMOUR (Pgilmou@wpo.it.luc.edu) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago Beginnings and expansions Founded in 1870 as the St Ignatius College on Chicago's West Side. In 1908 the School of Law was established as the first of the professional programs. . |
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