What happened to Limbo?

by Michael Shackleton · December 18, 2011

Ever since the 1940s I have been made to believe that unbaptised babies, who have not attained the power of reason (such as a very early spontaneous miscarriage), can never reach the Beatific Vision. In the last few years I am made to believe by the hierarchy that they indeed can attain the Beatific Vision. This is disturbing to me. Which one is the true teaching of the Mystical Body of Christ?

This began around the fourth century when St Augustine proposed that, because the souls of these infants stained by Original Sin but not actual sin, could not see God in the beatific vision, they went into a state of eternal natural happiness known as the limbo of the infants. His view prevailed.

Canon 867 of the Code of Canon Law obliges parents to see that their infants are baptised within the first few weeks after birth. If the infant is in danger of death, it must be baptised without any delay.

This follows the practice of the Church, based on our Lord�s words: �Unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God� (Jn 3:5). Because the Church knows of no way other than baptism that will assure entry into eternal happiness, it insists on the necessity of being baptised as soon as possible.

Theologians speculated about the eternal fate of infants that died before baptism. This began around the fourth century when St Augustine proposed that, because the souls of these infants stained by Original Sin but not actual sin, could not see God in the beatific vision, they went into a state of eternal natural happiness known as the limbo of the infants. His view prevailed.

In the 15th century, Dominican scholar Thomas Cajetan suggested that unbaptised infants dying in the womb might be saved through the mother�s wish for the baby to be baptised.

In all this time, the Church had no official teaching, though it did not stop the theory of the limbo of the infants spreading. In the 1940s Catholics including yourself, had come to accept that limbo was a reality for unbaptised infants rather than theological speculation. It remains a valid theory.

Deeper scholarly research led to the Catechism of the Catholic Church dropping any mention of limbo, and explaining that Jesus� tenderness towards children allows us to hope that there is a way of salvation for unbaptised infants, but stressing the need for baptism (1261).

The Church, therefore, does not know the fate of unbaptised infants, but in the words of the Vatican commission examining the issue in 2007: �We dare to hope that these infants will be saved by some extra-sacramental gift of Christ�.