by Pastor Patrick Cho
I read an interesting article today on Yahoo! news that I thought might interest some people. The Catholic News Service has announced that the Roman Catholic Church has published an article, “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised,” officially dropping the belief in Limbo. For centuries now, the RCC has taught from tradition that Limbo was a place where infants went if they died before being baptized. Though this doctrine was taught in Catholic tradition, the RCC claims it was merely a hypothesis which never became an official Catholic tenet.
At the same time, the RCC wanted to clarify that in no way should this move be interpreted as taking emphasis away from the importance of baptism. According to the RCC, baptism is still necessary to remove original sin and receive God’s saving grace. This is undoubtedly still one of the major points of discrepancy between Catholics and evangelicals today. Though there are some who call themselves “evangelicals” who wish to believe that Catholics and Christians essentially believe the same thing when it comes to soteriology, the RCC’s Catechism clearly shows how Roman Catholicism teaches a gospel that is entirely different.
Here is some information about Roman Catholic baptism and salvation according to the RCC Catechism:
1257 “The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are ‘reborn of water and the Spirit.’ God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.”
1263 “By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam’s sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God.”
The grace infused in a person at baptism is lost when that person commits a grave or mortal sin. Acts of penance are thus necessary to bring that person back into reconciliation with God and the Church.
1446 “Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as ‘the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace.'”
From the Council of Trent: “As a means of regaining grace and justice, penance was at all times necessary for those who had defiled their souls with any mortal sin. . . . Before the coming of Christ, penance was not a sacrament, nor is it since His coming a sacrament for those who are not baptized. But the Lord then principally instituted the Sacrament of Penance, when, being raised from the dead, he breathed upon His disciples saying: ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained’ (John 20:22-23). By which action so signal and words so clear the consent of all the Fathers has ever understood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was communicated to the Apostles and to their lawful successors, for the reconciling of the faithful who have fallen after Baptism” (Sess. XIV, c. i).