Monday, December 05, 2005
GOODBYE ORIGINAL SIN
More on the abandonment of the theory of limbo.
Archbishop Levada said the question is important because "the number of babies not baptized has increased considerably" and the church knows that salvation "is only reachable in Christ through the Holy Spirit."
But the church, "as mother and teacher," also must reflect on how God saves all those created in his image and likeness, particularly when the individual is especially weak "or not yet in possession of the use of reason and freedom," the archbishop said.
Redemptorist Father Tony Kelly, an Australian member of the commission, told Catholic News Service "the limbo hypothesis was the common teaching of the church until the 1950s. In the past 50 years, it was just quietly dropped.
"We all smiled a bit when we were presented with this question, but then we saw how many important questions it opened," including questions about the power of God's love, the existence of original sin and the need for baptism, he said.
"Pastorally and catechetically, the matter had been solved" with an affirmation that somehow God in his great love and mercy would ensure unbaptized babies enjoyed eternal life with him in heaven, "but we had to backtrack and do the theology," Father Kelly said.
A conviction that babies who died without baptism go to heaven was not something promoted only by people who want to believe that God saves everyone no matter what they do.
Pope John Paul II believed it. And so does Pope Benedict.
So how are they going to get around that fact that the baby was born with original sin? Here is the proposal:
Father Kelly said turning away from the idea of limbo was part of "the development of the theological virtue of hope" and reflected "a different sense of God, focusing on his infinite love."
The Redemptorist said people should not think the changed focus is a lightweight embrace of warm, fuzzy feelings.
"The suffering, death and resurrection of Christ must call the shots," he said. "If Christ had not risen from the dead, we never would have thought of original sin," because no one would have needed to explain why absolutely every human needed Christ's salvation.
The fact that God loves his creatures so much that he sent his Son to die in order to save them means that there exists an "original grace" just as there exists "original sin," Father Kelly said.
The existence of original grace "does not justify resignation," or thinking that everyone will be saved automatically, he said, "but it does justify hope beyond hope" that those who die without having had the opportunity to be baptized will be saved.
There you have it. Original grace. Matthew Fox called it "original blessing." See we really don't need the Church and the rules. Fox got it right while ignoring them. I wonder how soon they will reinstate him?
This will have other repercussions, since lots of people believed it was doctrine. There will be questions about other teachings, and people who find them inconvenient will simply dump them because afterall they don't make sense and why should I be burdened with them when eventually the Church will see the light and change them just like She did the belief in limbo.
I propose that the first one to be dumped by a majority of Catholics is going to be the teaching on birth control. Heck, it's already been dumped by the majority of Catholics, and they're about to be given legitimacy.
Maybe we had better pay closer attention to what Matthew Fox is saying.
First we don't need the Church, now we weren't born with original sin. At the rate this is going, pretty soon the only people in hell will be the Catholics because obviously the rest were simply invincibly ignorant and thus couldn't offend God by sinning.
And we thought the cafeteria was closed. Oh baby, we ain't seen nothing yet!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for our leaders!
