BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Catholicism Question

Please do not take offence at this question. I want to know how Catholics reconcile something like this in their minds. Though the way I phrase it will be a little tongue in cheek.

Last week the pope cancelled limbo. I was only vaguly aware of limbo but have since found out it is a place between heaven and hell (likely closer to heaven) where unchristened babies would go. This is very good news for any babies that are born after last week but what about all those babies born in the last 2000 years?
Is this new decision retroactive?

What is the age limit of this perk, if I am 20 and I die do I get into heaven? There would have to be an age attached otherwise heaven is open to everyone who is never Christened.

Does this affect babies of all people or do the babies parents need to be Catholic? If so, lets say I was adopted which parents religion takes precedence, natural or adoptive?

How does the pope come to this decision? Is it revealed to him? What does revealed mean, does he sit and think about it until he decides something. If thats the case I have a lot of things revealed to me.

Thanks for any clarification.

Limbo was not just for unbaptized babies. It was for anyone who died with neither mortal sin nor baptism. It was supposed to be a very nice place, just not heaven. IIRC, you can only acquire mortal sin after the age of seven, but there are a lot of them, so in all likelihood, a 20 year old who dies unbaptized is in for a rough time. I haven't read the decision, but if the Pope declared ex cathedrea, then Limbo never existed in the first place.

Thank you for the response. That would sure be a nice ability. To take something that was around for 2000 years and then not only cancel it but make it so it never existed. Even though we all can clearly remember it existing. So, if I died in the year 1000 at the age of 6, I have been in Limbo for 1007 years and now all of a sudden I am in heaven and Limbo never existed. So now I have been in haeven for 1007 years and I don't recall Limbo. So we the living are the only ones who recall Limbo? This is like Back to the Future.

If you really want to know, Limbo was never officially determined to exist. It was thought to exist as a consequence of other ideas, but had never been declared official dogma. Kind of like phlogiston. Or superstrings. Or ether (the fifth state of matter, not the organic compound.) So the departed souls never were in limbo, just like Jimmy Hoffa never was buried in the Meadowlands.