Pope has new view of Limbo

Vatican report eases doctrine on fate of unbaptized children (From AP)
Vatican City: "Pope Benedict XVI has reversed centuries of traditional Roman Catholic teaching on limbo.

He approved a Vatican report released Friday that says there are "serious" grounds to hope that children who die without being baptized go to heaven.

Theologians said the move was significant, both for what it says about Benedict's willingness to buck a longstanding tenet of Catholic belief and for what it means theologically about the church's views on heaven, hell and original sin--which the church believes all children are born with.

Although Catholics have long believed that their children who die without being baptized are excluded from heaven because of their original sin, the church has no formal doctrine on the matter." [end of article]

Anyone who knows the history of the Roman Catholic church in this matter knows that this represents a significant change in doctrine. Not only do the Roman Catholics believe in original sin, but so do many other denominations, many of them mainline protestants. Perhaps God is able to cure original sin at birth, thus making it unnecessary to baptize infants any longer. Then we can return to the biblical and historical position that says baptism is for those who are old enough to understand what they are doing.

Further information can be found at

http://www.religioustolerance.org/limbo2.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070420/ts_nm/pope_limbo_dc
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2028721620070420