You just knew that the other cosmological shoe was going to drop, didn’t you?
Vatican to review state of limbo
The Pope is said never to have believed in the concept
Catholic experts are expected to advise Pope Benedict XVI that teachings on the state of limbo – somewhere between heaven and hell – should be amended.
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Our correspondent says some have suggested that the possible change is an attempt by the Vatican to prevent people in developing countries with high infant mortality rates turning to Islam – Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to paradise.But Father John MacDaid, a theologian and principal of the Catholic Heythrop College at the University of London, denied the suggestion.
“I don’t think there is any rivalry here,” he said.
“What I would say to any parent who loses a child and who is anxious about the destiny of that child is that we must have complete confidence that that child is now embraced by God in heaven.”
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Our correspondent says some have suggested that the possible change is an attempt by the Vatican to prevent people in developing countries with high infant mortality rates turning to Islam – Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to paradise.But Father John MacDaid, a theologian and principal of the Catholic Heythrop College at the University of London, denied the suggestion.
“I don’t think there is any rivalry here,” he said.
“What I would say to any parent who loses a child and who is anxious about the destiny of that child is that we must have complete confidence that that child is now embraced by God in heaven.”
Time to get a new Vatican correspondent, I would think.
BBC Hilarity:
Should the state of limbo be abolished?
Do you believe in the state of limbo?The Pope is expected to abolish the state of limbo – the place somewhere between heaven and hell where many Catholics believe the souls of unbaptised children go if they die.
The Catholic Church is concerned about the grief suffered by the parents of stillborn children, but some have suggested that the change is an attempt by the Vatican to prevent people in countries with high infant mortality rates turning to Islam.
Why do you think the Pope wants to abolish the state of limbo? Is it to ensure people don’t turn to other religions? Is he right to abolish it? Should it be up to the individual to decide? Send us your comments.
Typical response:
I think he probably wants to abolish it since limbo is not something Christ ever mentioned. I think the talk about not encouraging other religions is childish. I think that since, if anything, this is a Protestant country, that it naturally is up to the individual to decide.
Russell Ball, United Kingdom
Related: Limboan refugees plead for aid
Have Your Say:
Should BBC Wankers Just STFU? Some have suggested they talk through their arses.
People arguing about limbo makes as much sense as people arguing about the average length of a unicorn’s horn.
Am I drunk? QUITE. But I’m also gettin’ shit done.
People lowering the bar and dancng under it, yes?
Karl, the BBC seems to lower the bar and dance under it every day.
Among others, yes.
I don’t know what this has to do with infant mortality, but it strikes me as pure prudery.
Yeah, I see Jesus as more of a samba kinda guy.
TW: You should really be kept out of these threads.
Me:
– Whatever happened to good old purgitory. I guess that went out with Lava lamps.
– It’s this sort of supersillyess nonsense that turns people away from the churchs, and drives them to seek religion in more unfettered informal settings. The most sensible religious approach is to use the approriate books/teachings and keep it to your own personal sphere. Too me it’s all a throwback to the middle ages, and the struggle between royalty and church leaders for dominion over the masses. I have no use for the regal grandious edifices that preport to have special influence, and a pipeline to the maker.
– I could be all wet, but I seem to remember that Christ, and all of the other mages, tended to call the great outdoors thier “church”.
TW: mass85. Until further notice, Daily Mass will be held at 8am and 5pm, rather than the normal times, so as not to interfer with Bingo nights.
BBH–You are channelling Witheld.
Look, my point is, whatever you may think of limbo as a concept, that it’s never been a part of official church doctrine, contrary to the tenor of the debate that the BBC has gone out of its way to generate (which consists largely of Orangemen taking out their cherished hatred on Croppies, if you look at the comments). The idea that the Catholic Church is eliminating the idea so as to counter the influence of Islam is patently absurd. I mean, if they wanted to be popular, they’d be relaxing their views on sex and birth control and abortion, and they wouldn’t say anything that Islam finds insulting. The disingenuousness of the question is best illustrated by the formula, “some have suggested,” when the only one who has suggested appears to be the BBCs own correspondent. Finally, it’s nothing more than an invitation for BBC readers to attitudinize about matters which, in 95% of the cases, they’ve never reflected on for an instant: It’s in Dante’s Inferno; I think they should keep it. I’m surprised that they didn’t present it as a poll. They are idiots.
I don’t want to go to limbo.
Lambada, now that would be a cool place to go.
The tone of the article is indeed ridiculous, but purgatory used to be a big part of catechism. It would scare some enough to go to confession before they headed home. Just in case.
Now as for me, I would like to know which way things are leaning before I decide limbo is awful. Cuz maybe it’s not that awful, ya’know?
Dan, if there is anything I have learned from reading the BBC “Have Your Say” comments, it’s that the commenters are remarkably ignorant of, well, everything.
Thanks, no doubt, to the BBC.
As a 5 yr old attending kindergarten at a Christian School, I was informed by my teacher that, if I died without being saved, I would go to Hell. When my mom finally figured out why I was having trouble sleeping at night, she went up to the school, and told the principal that the teacher had better keep her opinions on that subject to herself. She told him that the God she worshipped didn’t burn the souls of little children. The principal agreed to tell the teacher to stay off that subject. If Moms could overrule the Pope, this question would have been settled a long time ago.
Hmmmm – I am so misunderstood. Dan, laying it out csrefully, I’d have to say it like this. The BBC in the past 20 years in its pandering to secularists, has become as bad, if not worse, than any American Left wing rag. Most of the editors probably know what they know of Catholicism from Pope jokes they heard their Daddies tell around the dinner table. So much for my supposed support of the BBC. I rate them as a few pages short of the Inquirer.
– I have deep personal faith. I am anything but down on religion. Edifices. Super glandular glitzy manifistations of ego and hubris, having very little to do with aiding the flock, and more to do with political clout. Avoiding the responsibility of many dustups they themslves oftimes set in motion.
– I have to give it to the Pope though. He showed some real hair in this recent donneybrook with the Jihadist nutbags. I’m still trying to find a single Libturd that wants to explain to me how shooting a nun in the back is a human and civil response by any sane measurement of behavior.
– Nuff said.
Purgatory is still a dogma of the Catholic Church. It has not gone away, except in the many realms of cafeteria Catholics.