I always love the "not part of official teaching". So it's unofficial teaching? And WHAT is that?
Not a great article, methinks. I like Limbo..I think it makes more sense than half the stuff others are coming up with to replace it. Natural happiness without supernatural happiness.
But it was always theological opinion. No ecumenical council proclaimed it, no pope made it a matter of dogma. You cannot be tried for heresy by disbelieving in limbo.
And on Augustine, he said that he thought unbaptized babies would suffer a punishment in Hell so light that it couldn't even be called punishment at all. So yes, he was severe, but not as severe as people make him out to be.
Also, I'd like to point out that Limbo was *exactly* what the pagans always believed about the afterlife for the good. Physical comfort--not bliss exactly, but peace and happiness nonetheless without physical pain. The heaven of Christianity is a different animal--supernatural bliss such that no pagan had ever conceived.
Shame we confuse those concepts today. If youse don't mind, I'll wait and see what comes out from Rome, but I would be VERY surprised if, given the long history of this idea, it was outright condemned.
What's the relationship between Limbo and Purgatory? If they're different, is Purgatory an "official" teaching of the Roman Catholic church?