Catholic News Service: Closing the doors of limbo: Theologians say it was hypothesis

An international group of Vatican-appointed theologians is about to recommend that the Catholic Church close the doors of limbo forever.

Many Catholics grew up thinking limbo—the place where babies who have died without baptism spend eternity in a state of “natural happiness” but not in the presence of God—was part of Catholic tradition.

Instead, it was a hypothesis—a theory held out as a possible way to balance the Christian belief in the necessity of baptism with belief in God’s mercy.

Like hypotheses in any branch of science, a theological hypothesis can be proven wrong or be set aside when it is clear it does not help explain Catholic faith.

Oh, I had not realised they could change the rules at the drop of a mitre like that. This is very encouraging.

Other dodgy hypotheses the church might care to reconsider: papal infallibilty, virgin birth, transubstantiation, heaven, hell, evil, miracles, god.