The principle that God desires the salvation of all people gives rise to the hope that there is a path to salvation for infants who die without baptism (cf. Rather, the Catechism teaches that infants who die without baptism are entrusted by the Church to the mercy of God, as is shown in the specific funeral rite for such children. However, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), the theory of limbo is not mentioned. It remains therefore a possible theological hypothesis. ![]() This theory, elaborated by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages, never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium, even if that same Magisterium did at times mention the theory in its ordinary teaching up until the Second Vatican Council. It is clear that the traditional teaching on this topic has concentrated on 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. But the Church, as mother and teacher, cannot fail to reflect upon the fate of all men, created in the image of God, and in a more particular way on the fate of the weakest members of the human family and those who are not yet able to use their reason and freedom. The Church is conscious that this salvation is attainable only in Christ through the Spirit. In the contemporary context of cultural relativism and religious pluralism the number of non-baptized infants has grown considerably, and therefore the reflection on the possibility of salvation for these infants has become urgent. The International Theological Commission has studied the question of the fate of un-baptised infants, bearing in mind the principle of the “hierarchy of truths” and the other theological principles of the universal salvific will of God, the unicity and insuperability of the mediation of Christ, the sacramentality of the Church in the order of salvation, and the reality of Original Sin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised "O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?"."The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.".The circles include:įamous quotes and Lines From Dante’s The Divine Comedy: The Divine Comedy is perhaps most famous for its depictions of the different circles of Hell, each one detailing different punishments that go along with the most heinous sins. Botticelli’s painting is just one part of a larger illustrated manuscript he created based on the poem, 92 pages of which still survive. Hell has been the subject of countless artistic interpretations over the centuries, but one of the most long-lasting and influential came from Sandro Botticelli’s Map of Hell painting, based on The Divine Comedy, which is currently located in the Vatican Library. Dante’s death mask, which is on display in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, probably isn’t real.Īn example of how artists interpreted the nightmarish scenes from Dante's The Divine Comedy. Boniface was partly responsible for Dante's real-world exile, so being banished to hell, even a fictional one, was part of the writer's revenge. Once the mistaken identity gets cleared up, Nicholas reveals to Dante that Boniface is due to replace him in the burial hole once he dies (in this world, the damned can see into the future). In this circle, sinners are buried in the ground headfirst, and as Dante is walking through, the submerged Nicholas mistakes him for Pope Boniface. In Inferno, Dante comes across Pope Nicholas in Hell's eighth circle, which is designated for the act of simony (the buying or selling of religious privileges). Two famous figures that gained his ire were Pope Nicholas III and Pope Boniface VIII, whose notorious tenure was marked by his interference in foreign affairs as he attempted to grow the power of the Catholic Church. ![]() When writing Inferno, Dante basically allowed himself to play god, by sentencing fictionalized versions of his earthly enemies to an eternity of damnation in the hell he created for his epic poem. ![]() Dante's Hell as depicted in this illustration of The Divine Comedy.
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