The concept of Limbo is a theological view that many Roman Catholics held from the time of the Church Fathers until recently. The “Limbo of the Infants” was never an official doctrine of the Catholic Church, while the Limbo of the Fathers and Patriarchs was. Limbo refers to a place that is neither heaven nor hell. It does not offer the joyful, everlasting existence Heaven presents, nor the eternal conscious punishment that some Christians associate with hell. Though it also represents an intermediate state, it is distinct from purgatory, which some Catholics consider a process rather than a place.
What Is limbo?
The word Limbo comes from the Latin term limbus which means edge. The concept of Limbo appears in many religions across many cultures. It expresses the ideas that various cultures have had about the afterlife. Rather than thinking in binary terms of good or bad, heaven or hell, they have a blurred view, with a transitional space between the two extremes. Instead of believing a person is either here or there, people have contemplated zones of transition that accommodate those who do not fit in the opposite ends of the spectrum.
The Greeks, for example, believed that people who lived mediocre lives, neither notably virtuous nor wicked, spent the afterlife in Asphodel Meadows. This place held no great reward or punishment. Rather, it was a place of eternal mediocrity and, in a sense, purposelessness. Limbo has parallels in many cultures. It indicates the need for people to reflect on an afterlife that has a place for those who do not fit snugly in the spaces designated for the good or the evil but who live life in a kind of grey area in between.
Limbo in Christianity
Limbo refers to an intermediate state that Roman Catholics believe is neither Heaven nor Hell. Where Hell represents a place of eternal punishment and suffering, and Heaven is a place of everlasting joy and bliss, Limbo is somewhere in between. Catholic tradition holds that when a person dies, they enter one of four states:
1. Heaven is a state of eternal life, happiness, and union with God, meant for those who have received grace.
2. Hell, which represents eternal separation from God and results in never-ending suffering and torment for those who die in mortal sin without repenting.
3. Purgatory is where those who have received grace but need purification and more atonement for previous sins go before they can enter heaven. This is a temporary state many see as a process of sanctification.
4. Limbo is an intermediary state. The Patriarchs and Fathers of the Old Testament who died as faithful servants of God before Christ resided in Limbo until the atoning death on the cross allowed them access to heaven. In Limbo they did not receive full heavenly reward, nor did they suffer torment. To the Fathers and Patriarchs, this is a temporary residence. Another part of Limbo was dedicated to infants who died before they could be baptized.
The Limbo of the Fathers and Patriarchs is an official doctrine in Roman Catholicism. Since the fathers and Patriarchs who resided there were allowed into Heaven after Christ’s redemptive work, that part of Limbo is forever vacant. There is no need for anyone to reside there since believers can now either go to Heaven or go through Purgatory before having access to Heaven according to the Catholic tradition.
Infant Limbo was never an official doctrine of the Catholic Church, though it served as a framework Catholics used to understand what happened to babies who died before being baptized. After all, original sin had to be dealt with.
Original Sin refers to the sin of Adam. Adam was created in an original state of innocence. That innocence was lost when Adam, using his free will, sinned by being disobedient to God. The stain left on Adam’s soul, and by extension, the souls of all born from Adam and Eve continues from generation to generation and leaves no human unaffected until it is dealt with. Therefore, every human life starts with the blemish of Original Sin, even though no personal sin has been committed. This stain exists from the start of life and affects even the unborn. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it this way: “It is a sin that will be transmitted by propagation to the whole of humanity, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice.”
The only way to remove Original Sin, Catholics believe, is Baptism. Without Baptism, the person stained with Original Sin would be condemned to eternal torment in Hell. The challenge comes when one considers babies who have been aborted, or infants who have committed no personal sin, but passed away before baptism. What happens to them? It seems unjust that they must suffer eternal torment for something they did not do while they never committed any personal sin. The idea of Limbo solved the problem by neither consigning the infants to hell nor providing them access to Heaven without Baptism.
In Christianity, early ideas of what was later termed Infant Limbo are evident in the writings of several Church Fathers. Augustine of Hippo believed that infants who died without baptism did suffer the pains of Hell but to a significantly reduced degree. According to him, God gave the “mildest degree” of punishment to mitigate the obvious unfairness. In later generations, the mercy of God evident in Augustine’s understanding resulted in the development of the theory of Infant Limbo. Though these infants do not receive the Beatific Vision, of being with God in Heaven, they also do not suffer eternal torment in Hell.
Later theologians like Thomas Aquinas would expand on the basic ideas set by their predecessors. Aquinas theorized that Limbo has two parts, one part was for those who died before the redemptive work of Christ, and the other for infants who died before Baptism. A unique theology of Limbo developed in the Christian tradition, though not all its aspects qualified to become official doctrine.
Partly influenced by the challenges the Reformation and Renaissance presented, theological thought on Limbo, among other beliefs, received renewed attention.
By 1794, Pope Pius VI had declared in Auctorem Fidei that “the Limbo of children” is “a Pelagian fable,” rejecting the idea outright. Pelagius did not believe that the Fall tainted human nature, but rather that sin was only the result of wrong choices made by free will. Evidently, varying views on Limbo existed throughout the history of the Roman Catholic Church and not all its leaders subscribed to the idea of the Limbo of the Infants.
Catholic Thought on Limbo After Vatican II
The Catholic Church reconsidered and reinterpreted some of its practices during the Second Vatican Council. As part of their modernization of traditions, their view on Limbo also came under scrutiny. After Vatican II, the Church moved away from the traditional understanding of Infant Limbo and embraced a more inclusive view, no longer subscribing to the intermediary state. They focused on divine mercy that may allow those who died without Baptism access to the Beatific Vision.
Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ratzinger proposed that the Church abandon the idea of Limbo, though the step was not taken. In 2007, the International Theological Commission issued a document titled The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized. The release had the blessing of Pope Benedict XVI, though it did not go as far as the Pope would have liked to go on the issue. It was at least a move in the right direction because it reduced the prominence of the teaching by lowering it from a “common teaching” to a “possible theological hypothesis.”
The conclusion the International Theological Commission reached expresses hope and reflects the current understanding of the top scholars in the Roman Catholic tradition. Though not doing away with the view of Limbo of the Infants, it does provide a path that makes limbo unnecessary. They stated:
“Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered above give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and enjoy the Beatific Vision. We emphasize that these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge. There is much that simply has not been revealed to us (cf. Jn 16:12). We live by faith and hope in the God of mercy and love who has been revealed to us in Christ, and the Spirit moves us to pray in constant thankfulness and joy” (cf. 1 Thess 5:18).
“What has been revealed to us is that the ordinary way of salvation is by the sacrament of Baptism. None of the above considerations should be taken as qualifying the necessity of Baptism or justifying delay in administering the sacrament. Rather, as we want to reaffirm in conclusion, they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the Church.”
