Vatican is making some changes to include More people i.e. Pluralism

[Khayr]

Top theologianss at Vatican dispose of archaic tradiition

Dec. 29, 2005. 05:02 AM

IAN FISSHER

NEW YYORKK TIIMES

 

 

ROME—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." But limbo, that netherworld of unbaptized babies and worthy pagans, is on the way out — another lesson that while belief in God may not change, the things people believe about him do.

 

This month, 30 top theologians from around the world met at the Vatican to discuss, among other quandaries, the problem of what happens to babies who die without baptism. What they were really doing, as theological advisers to Pope Benedict XVI, was finally disposing of limbo — a concept that was never official church doctrine but has been an enduring medieval theory of a blissful state among the departed, somehow different from both heaven and hell.

 

Unlike purgatory, a sort of waiting room to heaven for those with some venial faults, the theory of limbo consigned children outside of heaven on account of original sin alone. As a concept, limbo has long been out of favour, as theologically questionable and unnecessarily harsh. It is hard to imagine depriving innocents of heaven. These days it prompts more snickers than anything.

 

But it remains an interesting relic, strangely relevant to what the Roman Catholic Church has been and what it wants to be. The theory of limbo bumps up against one of the most contentious issues for the church: abortion. If fetuses are human beings, what happens to their souls if they are aborted? It raises questions of how broadly the church — and its new leader — view the idea of salvation.

 

And it has some real-life consequences.

 

The church is growing most in poor places like Africa and Asia where infant mortality remains high. While the concerns of the experts reconsidering limbo are more theological, it doesn't hurt the church's future if an African mother who's lost a baby can receive more hopeful news from her priest in 2005 than, say, an Italian mother did in 1905.

 

"You look at the proper theology, but if there is more consolation, all the better," said the Rev. Luis Ladaria, secretary-general of the International Theological Commission, the official body working on limbo.

 

Unlike many issues — the recent emotional debate over homosexuality in the priesthood, for example — limbo seems to garner unanimity that it should exit the church's stage, even if, at the moment, the exact doctrine that will replace it is unclear.

 

"Limbo has never been a definitive truth of the faith," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Benedict XVI earlier this year, said in 1984, during his long term as Pope John Paul II's doctrinal watchdog. "Personally, I would let it drop, since it has always been only a theological hypothesis."

 

Over the years before he became pope, Ratzinger propounded several doctrines that had the "appearance, and sometimes more than the appearance, of exclusivity and separatism" of Catholics over other faiths, said James O'Donnell, provost of Georgetown University and a professor of classics.

 

Getting rid of limbo, he said, could be read as a sign of Benedict's endorsing a greater inclusivity into God's plan.

[Yeniceri]

the theory of limbo consigned children outside of heaven on account of original sin alone. As a concept, limbo has long been out of favour, as theologically questionable and unnecessarily harsh. It is

hard to imagine

depriving innocents of heaven.

Then, why imagine? :confused:

 

The church is growing most in

poor places

like Africa and Asia where infant mortality remains high.

But in "rich places" like Europe and North America where suicide rates are high, the Church isn't growing as much. Why is that?

 

Before these "rich places" became rich, the citizens thereof adhered to the Church and to its bylaws, for everything from social relations to political doctrines. As soon as these "rich places" gained power and wealth on a global scale, things such as faith in the Church (and in God) and morality took backseat prominence, and were overpowered by the newest religion, Capitalism.

 

The concept of limbo should be the least of the Church's concerns because there's a larger debate over homosexuality in the priesthood, as alludd to in the article, which will eventually lead to a fundamental split within Christendom.

[Khayr]

Salamz,

 

But limbo, that netherworld of unbaptized babies and worthy pagans, is on the way out —

another lesson that while belief in God may not change, the things people believe about him do.

This is what caught my attention inshallah and it says alot of the kali yoga (ayam al zaman).

 

The religious traditions are being truncated, corner by corner, a square mile here and there until you can't distinguis between what is RELIGION be it Christanity, Islam etc. or what is ANTI-RELIGION.

 

I can see parallel's in Islam in such Islamic Traditions such as the Mawlid of the Rasul (salallahu caliyhe wasilm) being truncated and driven out or polygamous marriages being frowned up even not outlawed by the Muslim Ummah.

 

As soon as these "rich places" gained power and wealth on a global scale, things such as faith in the Church (and in God) and morality took backseat prominence, and were overpowered by the newest religion, Capitalism.

 

The concept of limbo should be the least of the Church's concerns because there's a larger debate over homosexuality in the priesthood, as alludd to in the article, which will eventually lead to a fundamental split within Christendom.

I agree saxib and la qadra Allah that we live to see the Ummah divided on such issues.

 

 

Fi Amanillah

[Warrior of Light]

Originally posted by Khayr:

While the concerns of the experts reconsidering limbo are more theological, it doesn't hurt the church's future if an African

mother who's lost a baby

can receive more HOPEFUL NEWSfrom her priest in 2005 than, say, an Italian mother did in 1905.

 

Statements like these make me say Alhamdullilah Im a muslim. Religion should be universal, its rulings applicable in any time. A muslim mother in the 7th and 21st Century, knows with all her heart her baby goes to heaven, so would she if she had died in labour. Allah Akbar.