It's turning out that the only people who are truly screwed in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church are those, like me, who have had the opportunity climb on the Glory Bus and decided to wend their own way to the light instead. Of course, that's true for many of the Christian sects. You have to be on the bus, and on the right bus. Even though it's the same route to the same destination the poor souls on the other busses are damned. And those that are walking are going to be eating dust, burning sulphurous dust, for eternity.

"Limbo, which comes from the Latin word meaning “border” or “edge,” was considered by medieval theologians to be a state or place reserved for the unbaptized dead, including good people who lived before the coming of Christ."

Now, I was raised on Limbo and taught Limbo, by nuns in Roman Catholic grade schools. I was comforted with the idea that innocent little babies weren't cast into Hell. Seemed only right. But I was baptized, going to Heaven, as long as I didn't have even one missed Mass or other unconfessed Mortal Sin laying in the weeds. Which scared me, 'cause I couldn't remember everything which was a sin, which was Mortal, which was Venal, which had been confessed. So as a very young child I confessed to absolutely everything, real and only read about. I never did confess to lying to the priest, though, and that bothered me. (Or if I wore a scapular, a couple of patches of cloth connected by bands which one wore on their chest and back. Then I was guaranteed Heaven. But I kept losing mine, and it wasn't nearly as big a deal to Ma Bowser as washing behind my ears.)

“The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in revelation,” it said.

“There are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible (to baptize them).”

"Hope" they "may" be saved by a just and merciful God. And older pagans could be, too. If they are worthy pagans.

Talk about revising history! You'd think that as representatives of the all-knowing and eternal they'd have it right. On the other hand, there's precedent. Those same nuns taught me you couldn't subtract 5 apples from 3 apples, not enough apples. It was obvious. I remember my amazement at learning of negative numbers. I won't say they lied, however. They were doing the best they could with the little guy in front of them.

Go figure. What next, I wonder. If a shoe like this drops once every 60 years, I won't know. I won't be in Limbo, though.

Arf