December 18, 2009
The Christian Journey
Preparation for Baptism lessens fears about Limbo
BY FATHER JIM SAUER
At St. Joseph Church in Jasper, we encourage our parents to participate in the faith sharing sessions during their pregnancy prior to their baby’s baptism. If our parents would register during the first trimester of their pregnancy, we could spend six months of quality time with them discussing our Catholic faith. How many Catholics have not brushed up on their understanding of the Catholic faith since high school graduation or finishing their religious education classes?
Infant baptism provides us with a wonderful and appropriate catechetical moment to dialogue with our parents. Even better perhaps would be to have parents active in the Catholic faith to meet with our new parents or perhaps to serve as their “parish sponsors.” Having other parents meet with them connects them with the larger church instead of just with Father X or Y. The purpose of this lengthier process for infant baptism is not to make it more burdensome for parents to baptize their babies nor is it just to prepare them for “the day” of their baby’s baptism.
We want to help our parents either to grow in their faith or have their faith “re-awakened.” This takes time and the amount of time varies according to the needs of each set of parents.
Another reason for participating during the final two trimesters of their pregnancy is that this prevents us from dealing with fears some parents — or grandparents — have about their baby going to “Limbo” if the baby dies before baptism. Understandably, we would baptize any baby in danger of death immediately no matter if their parents attended any sessions or just a few.
Pope Benedict XVI recently did a tremendous service to the Catholic Church, which, pray God, brought comfort to parents who years ago experienced the death of a child prior to baptism. Our Holy Father declared that “Limbo” was never an official teaching or doctrine of the Catholic faith unlike Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.
How did the Church arrive at this concept of “Limbo?” The Western Church (meaning “all Christians” until the great division in the early 1500s) struggled in her understanding of “what happened to people who lived a ‘good life’ but died before the time of Jesus, as well as the fate of the souls of children who died before their baptism and thus were not free from original sin.” According to the 12th century French philosopher-theologian named Abelard, the Church accepted his “hypothesis” (theory) of Limbo. The word Limbo means “hem” or “boundary.” Thus, St. Thomas Aquinas concluded that, “Limbo was ‘an eternal state of natural joy’ in which unbaptized children were unaware of ‘the greater joy of heaven.’”
Although Limbo was never an official Church doctrine, many Christians considered it such since parish priests most likely preached about it and religion catechisms contained information about Limbo as well. Looking back on Church history, we would have to say that the Church’s intentions were to encourage parents to baptize their infants. Unfortunately, the Church placed more emphasis upon an infant “being freed from original sin” than on the parent’s commitment to raise them as “disciples of Christ.” It is easy to understand how Church members came to understand the Sacrament of Baptism to be completely separate from any involvement in parish life. The sole purpose of baptism was to wash away original sin in order to prevent a child from going to Limbo.
Because of this separation, the Church has been suffering for centuries trying to reconnect infant baptism to the parent’s faith and their responsibility to raise their children to be active members of the Church community.