Click the title for Al Kimel's (the Pontificator's) foray into this topic, and comment here.
As his conclusion, he cites several other recent blog articles on this topic, among which is one of my own. Since my previous entry here on limbo has caused a long discussion that has veered into other issues, it's best to re-focus the discussion here and base it on Al's latest article.
Michael Liccione, I hope it is OK for me to make some comments here to your excellent article that AK linked.
ReplyDeleteMichael Liccione: All agree that infants who die unbaptized go ad infernum; the differences are about whether and what extent that entails suffering, and whether it must be permanent.
Amen. I agree that these are indeed the relevant questions.
Could innocent children be suffering in limbo? Consider the case of unbaptized children that are beaten to death before they have reached the age of reason. Is it possible that these innocent children are translated into a temporal state in their afterlife where they suffer from the effects of the evil directed at them?
Consider the case of aborted children that have been violently murdered in the womb. Might not those children continue to suffer from the violence of abortion in their immediate afterlife? Certainly the Catholic Church is never going to teach that abortion is means for bestowing sanctifying grace to an unborn child!
Children that are abused, but not killed, are damaged spiritually from their physical and emotional abuse. Does anyone doubt that? I don’t have a problem believing that children that are violently murdered suffer in their afterlife, and that they are in need of relief from their suffering. There is no question that aborted children are innocent and not deserving of their suffering. But the terrible reality is that innocents suffer from the sins of others.
The real question, as I see it, is not whether innocent children that die violent deaths are eternally deprived of the beatific vision, but whether the Church Militant has means at her disposal to help these poor souls attain the joy of Heaven.
The CCC says this:
CCC 1283 With respect to children who have died without Baptism, the liturgy of the Church invites us to trust in God's mercy and to pray for their salvation.
If the Church invites us to pray for the salvation of “children who have died without Baptism”, are we not being invited to pray for the grace of Baptism to be given to those children? For how could anyone be saved apart from the grace that the Sacrament of Baptism bestows?
Michael Liccione: … one might argue that the likelihood of salvation for such humans depends partly on the desires and prayers of the baptized on their behalf. That is desirable and might even be necessary to some extent. But what seems both necessary and sufficient to me is positing that the loving intercession of the most powerful of the Church’s members, the Mother of the Church who is also the Mother of God, is always working on behalf of such humans.
I personally believe that the Church Militant does have at her disposal the means to provide succor to unloved innocent children that die violent deaths. The members of the Church Militant can offer prayers and sacrifices for the souls of these poor children. Above all, the members of the Church Militant can have Masses said for these children. However, I don’t think that efficacious prayers for the innocent can only come from those who have received the Sacrament of Baptism. I think that God hears the cries of anyone who calls upon his mercy.
CCC 1256: … In case of necessity, anyone, even a non-baptized person, with the required intention, can baptize …
If an informed non-baptized person with explicit desire can validly baptize another person, could an invincibly ignorant person possess the implicit desire for an infant to receive the grace of salvation?
Michael Liccione: I also believe it best to retain the traditional understanding that at least some sort of desire for baptism is necessary for incorporation into the Church and thus for salvation.
An infant is incorporated into the Church by the explicit desire of an adult to have the infant receive the graces bestowed by the Sacrament of Baptism. The baptized infant needs neither explicit nor implicit desire to receive the saving grace of Baptism.
Is it conceivable that an invincibly ignorant adult could have the implicit desire for baptism of their child? I think so, but that is only my opinion. I can only know with certainty the ordinary means of salvation that God has gifted to the Church Militant.
The question is not whether God is capable of saving a child in limbo or a person in Purgatory without my prayers. The question as I see it is this: when I stand before God for my particular judgement, will I be able to show that I did anything to try and provide succor to those in the Church Suffering?