The old Limbo is out! Meet the new and improved Limbo!
Forgive me for being sarcastic in response to the whole chutzpah behind this--but really.
I mean, golly gee, the pope has made a pronouncement on the afterlife--or rather, given his holy seal of approval to a commission's findings on the subject of Limbo, that realm where the Catholic Church says unbaptized babies go, because, as we all know, if you aren't baptized, you can't be given eternal salvation. (I'm sure that millions of about-to-be aborted fetuses are now breathing a sigh of relief, because it turns out that they might just be "saved and brought into eternal happiness" after all, according to the commission report.)
There is a catch, though; the commission report also added that "these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge."
What's this? Lack of sure knowledge about what happens after we die? Surely you jest! What's the point of having a patriarchal, authoritarian, dogmatic theocratic dictatorship if it can't tell us exactly what to believe about every single fine point of theology with the absolutest of certainty? If you can't have the details of the afterlife served to you on a platter by Christ's personal representative on earth--well, you might as well be an Episcopalian.
I think all this convoluted thinking really comes down to the strange idea that God would not grant someone eternal bliss just because they happened not to have water sprinkled on them by an authorized person who at the same time said a certain set of words. The real problem with all of this is--what kind of God do you believe in? Do you believe in a God who would deny people eternal salvation just because they didn't undergo a certain ritual during their lifetime? Or do you believe instead in a God of universal compassion who gives unconditional love to all her children?
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3 comments:
Hey, Mystical Seeker, the God I believe in would never be so petty as to choose to love or reject someone because of whether or not they jumped through the right hoops. I believe that God is Love and Compassion. People, I'm not so sure about though.
And I wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blog. That's why I've tagged it one of my Top 5 "Thinking Blogs". Check out what I posted today in my blog to learn all about it.
As one who doesn't believe in original sin or that babies are born under judgment, I sometimes look at a doctrine like this with disbelief. Yet, the historian in me knows that these things all have a history and an institution that's as tradition bound as the RCC, which isn't all bad, moves slowly.
The question is -- what ultimately will this mean for the church? That I don't know. But it does show that change is possible, even if it's centuries in coming!
Thank you, Mama G! I really appreciate the compliment.
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