Limbo: A State of Mind

In my younger days I was very Catholic. Very vanilla Catholic. Teach me, preach me I believed it. Save for one issue which I found difficult to fathom. Limbo was the word and had zilch, nada, nyet to do with the bending dance under a stick.

Limbo, we were taught at an early naive age, was the little room off to the side of heaven where babies go when they die nonbaptized. Since we were born with original sin, heaven was out of bounds unless one was baptized. So the little babies went to a "state of perfect natural happiness" when they died.

Catholic theologians are now in the process of rethinking the matter proposing to draft a document to finally conclude the matter. Why is a document necessary? It seems that the church never held a formal doctrinal stance on the issue. My question: If no formal doctrine existed, why has the church promoted this line of thinking for centuries?

The newly appointed Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada, has cited an increase in the number of nonbaptized babies in societies marked by "cultural relativism and religious pluralism" as the focal point of the resolve of the issue. Perhaps there is an even deeper necessity in settling the issue? The abortion issue? Then again maybe keeping the Pope'sinfallibilityy streak perfect.

According to the church, life begins at conception. An aborted fetus is unbaptized and therefore can not see heaven, but is placed in Limbo. Shall we deny a place in heaven for the unborn based on the sins of the mother? A compassionate church which abhors abortion can not in true conscious deny a place in heaven to those victimized by such atrocities. And so another spin is born.

Will the posting of this document, if in the favor of the babies, have a retroactive effect? Will babies having died prior to the formal announcement finally be whisked off through the Pearly Gates or will they still languish in the state of Limbo? Or will our own beliefs in what is right and true reserve a place for the innocent without looking to a document for inspiration?