The "Closing" of Limbo
What the Vatican's International Theological Commission really said about limbo.
by Jonathan V. Last
05/25/2007

NEXT TO MATHEMATICS, theology is the discipline least conducive to journalism. So certain precincts of the press should be forgiven their recent headlines about the Vatican and the realm known as limbo.

The Times of London claimed that limbo had been "banished on orders of the Pope," while a New York Times headline reported, "Pope Closes Limbo." Agence France-Presse ran with the most magisterial headline of all, declaring, "Vatican abolishes limbo; opens gates of heaven for babies." None of which is quite right.

Limbo is in the news again because, in late April, the Vatican's International Theological Commission published a document titled "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized." The report wasn't really "news": It had been in the works and discussed in theology circles since 2005. And contrary to the headlines, Pope Benedict XIV neither closed nor banished limbo: He had merely approved the publication of this report under the auspices of the ITC. The pontiff took no direct action; no official church doctrine changed. the rest