"VATICAN CITY -
Pope Benedict XVI has reversed centuries of traditional Roman Catholic teaching on limbo, approving a
Vatican report released Friday that says there were "serious" grounds to hope that children who die without being baptized can go to heaven."...
"If there's no limbo and we're not going to revert to St. Augustine's teaching that unbaptized infants go to hell, we're left with only one option, namely, that everyone is born in the state of grace," said the Rev. Richard McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame...
The document traces centuries of Church views on the fate of unbaptized infants, paying particular attention to the writings of St. Augustine — the 4th century bishop who is particularly dear to Benedict. Augustine wrote that such infants do go to hell, but they suffer only the "mildest condemnation."...
No one can know for certain what becomes of unbaptized babies since Scripture is largely silent on the matter, the report said...
It stressed that none of its findings should be taken as diminishing the need for parents to baptize infants...
"Rather ... they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the church."...
He said the document also had implications for non-Christians, since it could be seen as suggesting that non-baptized adults could go to heaven if they led a good life...
"I think it shows that Benedict is trying to balance his view of Jesus as being central as the savior of the world ... but at the same time not saying what the Evangelicals say, that anyone who doesn't accept Jesus is going to hell," he said in a phone interview.
