Hence, it is not immediately clear how to reconcile the mercy of God for unbaptized infants with the necessity of baptism and Catholic faith for salvation. Nonetheless, according to Catholic dogma, baptism, or at least the desire for it, along with supernatural faith or at least the 'habit of faith', are necessary for salvation. While the Catholic Church has a defined doctrine on original sin, it has none on the eternal fate of unbaptised infants, leaving theologians free to propose different theories, which magisterium is free to accept or reject. Many Catholic priests and prelates say that the souls of unbaptized children must simply be 'entrusted to the mercy of God', and whatever their status is cannot be known. Recent Catholic theological speculation tends to stress the hope, although not the certainty, that these infants may attain heaven instead of the state of Limbo.

The Limbo of Infants (Latin limbus infantium or limbus puerorum) is the hypothetical permanent status of the unbaptised who die in infancy, too young to have committed actual sins, but not having been freed from original sin. Limbo of Infants Byzantine depiction in the Church of Chora of the resurrection of Christ, raising Adam and Eve who represent all humankind, with the righteous prophets of the Old Testament observing 215), who maintained: 'It is not right that these should be condemned without trial, and that those alone who lived after the coming should have the advantage of the divine righteousness.' The doctrine expressed by the term Limbo of the Fathers was taught, for instance, by Clement of Alexandria ( c.This imagery is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church's Holy Saturday liturgy (between Good Friday and Pascha) and in Eastern Orthodox icons of the Resurrection of Jesus. In this assault, Jesus freed the souls of the just and escorted them triumphantly into heaven. Medieval drama sometimes portrayed Christ leading a dramatic assault – the Harrowing of Hell – during the three days between the Crucifixion and the resurrection. Jesus is also described as preaching to 'the spirits in prison' ( 1 Peter 3:19).Timothy Radcliffe explained the 'today' as a reference to the 'Today of eternity'. At least one Medieval devotional source and a course of Catholic religious instruction dating to or before the early 1900s posit the view that the understand the text to mean not 'I say to you, This day you will be with me in paradise', but 'I say to you this day, You will be with me in paradise'. Jesus told the Good Thief that the two of them would be together 'this day' in Paradise ( Luke 23:43 see also Matthew 27:38) but on the Sunday of his resurrection he said that he had 'not yet ascended to the Father' ( John 20:17).The end of that state is set either at the Resurrection of the Dead, the most common interpretation in the East, or at the Harrowing of Hell, the most common interpretation in the West, but adopted also by some in the East. Luke 16:22 speaks of the ' bosom of Abraham', which both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, following early Christian writers, understand as a temporary state of souls awaiting entrance into Heaven.The concept of Limbo of the Patriarchs is not spelled out in Scripture, but is seen by some as implicit in various references: This concept of Limbo affirms that admittance to Heaven is possible only through the intervention of Jesus Christ, but does not portray Moses, etc. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into Hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead.' It adds: 'But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.' It does not use the word Limbo. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes Christ's descent into Hell as meaning primarily that 'the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. The term Limbo of the Fathers was a medieval name for the part of the underworld ( Hades) where the patriarchs of the Old Testament were believed to be kept until Christ's soul descended into it by his death through crucifixion and freed them. The 'Limbo of the Patriarchs' or 'Limbo of the Fathers' (Latin limbus patrum) is seen as the temporary state of those who, despite the sins they may have committed, died in the friendship of God but could not enter Heaven until redemption by Jesus Christ made it possible. See also: Sheol Jesus in Limbo by Domenico Beccafumi

Limbo definition