Apparently, limbo is about to be banished from Catholic doctrine quicker than a baby who dies without being baptized is banished from Heaven. The NY Times has a rather flippant article on how the Church is trading in centuries of tough doctrinal logic for a dose of updated--and old-fashioned Protestant and Mormon--mercy for the souls of innocent babies. The opening paragraph sets the tone:
It may seem half a shame to get rid of a church tradition, however cruel and antiquated, if it can inspire poetry like "The Inferno" or spooky lines like these from Seamus Heaney: "Fishermen at the Ballyshannon/Netted an infant last night/Along with the salmon."Vatican Considers Consigning Limbo to Oblivion [nyt]
Wikipedia on limbo: more reasonable, less cynical, more apologetic, less ready to acknowledge the degree to which limbo was treated as doctrine in the past. [wikipedia]
