Arrggghhh!!!

I'm pulling my hair out in frustration here, people. And basshing my head against the wall.

A commision is supposedly recommending the Church ditch limbo. Which is fine. What I can't stand is the misrepresentations of the reporting. There is no need for this Reuters reporter to check facts or anything, as we all know what Catholics believe.

Limbo -- the place where the Catholic Church teaches that babies go if they die before being baptized -- may have its days numbered...The Catholic Church teaches that babies who die before they can be baptized go to limbo, whose name comes from the Latin for "border" or "edge," because they deserve neither heaven nor hell.

Gee, that's not what the Cathecism says. This is what the Church actually teaches.

As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,"⁶⁴ allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.

And this:

According to Italian media reports on Tuesday, an international theological commission will advisePope Benedict to eliminate the teaching about limbo from the Catholic catechism.

A hundred bucks to the first person to find limbo in the Catechism. You won't because ain't there!

Limbo is theological speculation. A theory formulated to resolve the dilemma of those who die without personal sin but with original sin. It was never formally defined by the Church, much less elevated doctrine. Who can believe in it, but you're free not to. It's not revealed truth, nor does it contradict revealed truth.

Here's what Cardinal Ratzinger had to say back in 1984:

"Limbo has never been a defined truth of faith," he said. "Personally, speaking as a theologian and not as head of the Congregation, I would drop something that has always been only a theological hypothesis."