Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Pope tries to win hearts and minds by saving souls of unbaptised babies
By Ruth Gledhill and Richard Owen
October 04, 2006

THE Pope will cast aside centuries of Catholic belief later this week by abolishing formally the concept of limbo, in a gesture calculated to help to win the souls of millions of babies in the developing world for Christ.

All the evidence suggests that Benedict XVI never believed in the idea anyway. But in the fertile evangelisation zones of Africa and Asia, the Pope — an acknowledged authority on all things Islamic — is only too aware that Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to Heaven. For the Church, looking to spread the faith in countries with a high infant mortality rate, now is a good time to make it absolutely clear that stillborn babies of Christian mothers go direct to Heaven, too.
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Ruth Gledhill Weblog: Limbo cast out of limbo

Dore's masterpiece showing Dante chatting to Socrates, Plato and Virgil in limbo is one of the many evocative works of art and literature depicting this uncertain state of undeadness reserved for babies and for those born before the time of Christ. As we report today, the Pope is at last putting an end to a teaching that was never a formal part of Church doctrine in any case. We are of course long past the time in the Middle Ages where, in some parts of Europe if a woman died pregrant, before the burial the baby was extracted from her womb.The 'baby' was buried in unconsecrated ground. It is perhaps out of a wish to win the souls of millions of babies in the developing world for Christ that the Pope has formally abolished limbo, because all the evidence suggests that Benedict XVI never believed in the concept anyway.

In the fertile evangelisation zone of Africa, Asia and the other nations of the South, the Pope, an acknowledged authority on all things Islamic, is only too aware that Muslims believe the souls of still-born babies go straight to heaven. Looking to spread the faith in countries with a high infant mortality rate, now is as good a time as any to make it utterly and absolutely clear that still-born babies of Christian mothers go direct to heaven also.
the rest

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