Page "Limbo" Paragraph 30

Pope Benedict XVI authorized publication of this document, indicating that he considers it consonant with the Church's teaching, though it is not an official expression of that teaching.

Media reports that by the document " the Pope closed Limbo " are thus without foundation.

In fact, the document explicitly states that " the theory of limbo, understood as a state which includes the souls of infants who die subject to original sin and without baptism, and who, therefore, neither merit the beatific vision, nor yet are subjected to any punishment, because they are not guilty of any personal sin.

This theory, elaborated by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages, never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium.

Still, that same Magisterium did at times mention the theory in its ordinary teaching up until the Second Vatican Council.

It remains therefore a possible theological hypothesis " ( second preliminary paragraph ); and in paragraph 41 it repeats that the theory of Limbo " remains a possible theological opinion ".

The document thus allows the hypothesis of a limbo of infants to be held as one of the existing theories about the fate of children who die without being baptised, a question on which there is " no explicit answer " from Scripture or tradition.

It ought also to be mentioned here that the traditional theological alternative to Limbo was not Heaven, but rather some degree of suffering in Hell.

At any rate, these theories are not the official teaching of the Catholic Church, but are only opinions that the Church does not condemn, permitting them to be held by its members, just as is the theory of possible salvation for infants dying without baptism.