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Author Topic: The mystery of Limbo  (Read 256280 times)

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Offline cassini

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The mystery of Limbo
« on: September 24, 2025, 01:22:15 PM »
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  • Came across the following on Limbo in my files.

    •The Catechism Explained, 1899, page 188: "Limbo is called in Scripture the "bosom of Abraham"; (Luke xvi. 22); the "prison"; (1 Pet. iii. 19), and Our Lord called the place "paradise"; (Luke xxiii. 43)

    • The Fourth Lateran Council solemnly defined the doctrine on our Lord's descension into hell when it stated, "having suffered on the wood of the Cross and died, descended into hell, arose from the dead and ascended into heaven" (reference; Denzinger 429)

    • Pope Pius VI Auctorem fidei, 1794 (Denz 1526): 26. The doctrine which rejects as a Pelagian fable, that place of the lower regions (which the faithful generally designate by the name of the limbo of children) in which the souls of those departing with the sole guilt of original sin are punished with the punishment of the condemned, exclusive of the punishment of fire, just as if, by this very fact, that these who remove the punishment of fire introduced that middle place and state free of guilt and of punishment between the kingdom of God and eternal damnation, such as that about which the Pelagians idly talk,--false, rash, injurious to Catholic schools.

    • Denzinger 493: Hell and Limbo - [From the letter "Nequaquam sine dolore" to the Armenians, Nov. 21, 1321]: 493a It (The Roman Church) teaches. . . . . that the souls . . . . . of those who die in mortal sin, or with only original sin descend immediately into hell; however, to be punished with different penalties and in different places.

    • Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas, Whether the limbo of children is the same as the limbo of the Fathers?: "The limbo of the Fathers and the limbo of children, without any doubt, differ as to the quality of punishment or reward. For children have no hope of the blessed life, as the Fathers in limbo had, in whom, moreover, shone forth the light of faith and grace. But as regards their situation, there is reason to believe that the place of both is the same; except that the limbo of the Fathers is placed higher than the limbo of children, just as we have stated in reference to limbo and hell."

    • Catechism of Council of Trent, The Creed, Article IV: "...On the contrary, we firmly believe and profess that when His soul was dissociated from His body, His Divinity continued always united both to His body in the sepulchre and to His soul in limbo..."

    • The Catechism Explained, 1899, pgs 188-189: This place is called limbo, and is quite distinct from purgatory, though the two places had this feature in common, that in neither place is there the vision of God ; for while there is pain to be suffered in purgatory, there was none in limbo ; nor was limbo the same as hell, where the pains are eternal; on the contrary the souls in limbo had some consolation (Luke xvi. 25), though entrance to heaven was deferred (Heb. ix. 8)..."

    • Baltimore Catechism: 86. Q. Did Christ's soul descend into the hell of the damned? A. The hell into which Christ's soul descended was not the hell of the damned, but a place or state of rest called Limbo, where the souls of the just were waiting for Him.

    • Catechism of St. Pope Pius X, The Fifth Article of the Creed: "Q: What are we taught in the Fifth Article: He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead? A: The Fifth Article of the Creed teaches us that the Soul of Jesus Christ, on being separated from His Body, descended to the Limbo of the holy Fathers, and that on the third day it became united once more to His Body, never to be parted from it again"

    • Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas, The Creed, The Fourth Article, End Notes: "The fourth and final reason is that Christ might free the just who were in hell [or Limbo]. For as Christ wished to suffer death to deliver the living from death, so also He would descend into hell to deliver those who were there". Also, "The reason they were there in hell [i.e., Limbo] is original sin which they had contracted from Adam, and from which as members of the human race they could not be delivered except by Christ."

    • Catholic Encyclopedia, Limbo (1913): "Thus the Council of Florence, however literally interpreted, does not deny the possibility of perfect subjective happiness for those dying in original sin, and this is all that is needed from the dogmatic viewpoint to justify the prevailing Catholic notion of the children's limbo, while form the standpoint of reason, as St. Gregory of nαzιanzus pointed out long ago, no harsher view can be reconciled with a worthy concept of God's justice and other attributes."