An excerpt from my book on limbo.
Is My Baby an Angel?
No, your baby cannot be an angel. Angels are pure and bodiless spirits created at the beginning of time. They are purely spiritual in nature. Their “nature” is a bodiless one. There is nothing physical about them. So, God does not have another “angel in heaven.” Humans are entirely separate creatures from angels and can procreate. Angels cannot. Your baby had a body and a soul, created in His image and likeness. While humans, including babies, cannot become angels, they can become saints.
Babies baptized at birth would not experience purgatory and, thus, would be received into Heaven as a saint. There are many kinds of saints. Our babies do not need to be officially recognized by the church to be saints. Saints aren’t just the incorruptible, like Padre Pio. They are part of the community of saints, which we hear about at every Mass. If your baby was baptized, he or she is sinless and, therefore, has no need for purification in purgatory. Your baby can be a powerful intercessor for you.
I Couldn’t Baptize My Baby, What Does the Catholic Church Say?
If your baby was unable to be baptized, the current Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us this:
As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,” allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children from coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism. CCC1261 (Emphasis added)
The above passage is cause for hope as is this: “Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered above give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and enjoy the Beatific Vision. We emphasize that these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge.” – The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Baptism [102]
Is My Baby in Limbo?
The very thought of Limbo conjures up images of souls suspended in a perpetual state of abandonment and no parent wants to imagine their tiny baby as abandoned by God. According to current Church teaching though, Limbo is still a possibility for unbaptized babies. The vast majority of people do not understand Limbo so it will be explained here.
While the term Limbo or Limbus in Latin means “edge,” souls in this state are not abandoned nor in a perpetual state of suspension. The name Limbo was probably chosen on account of St. Augustine’s (354-430AD) pessimistic view that infants who die unbaptized are consigned to the fringes of Hell and suffer the mildest of punishments. He had to hold strong against Pelagianism.
Differences in the term Limbo
The Limbo of the Infants is not the same as the Limbo of the Patriarchs, which many Catholics are familiar with because it is attested to in the Creed. When the Creed says that Jesus descended into hell, it refers to his descent to the Limbo of the Patriarchs, where the ‘just’ from the Old Testament were detained. The ‘just’ were those who died in a state of grace and were assured of their salvation but before Christ’s work of redemption, e.g., St Joseph, Abraham, and King David. After his death, Jesus announced to these souls the long-awaited redemption. After the Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension, they, too, entered heaven. The Limbo of the Patriarchs, therefore, was only a temporary state and is empty.
What, then, is the Limbo of the Infants? Limbo of the Infants is a place of natural happiness wherein souls glorify God. Why might unbaptized babies be in Limbo? Because baptism is necessary for salvation. Even babies in the womb are subject to the effects of Original Sin because the only human preserved from Original Sin is Mary; which is why we say “Queen conceived without Original Sin.” Is God so cruel He would damn even an innocent child that dies in the womb?
Image and Likeness
Man is made in God’s image and likeness, this includes babies, and all of human creation is ordered to know and love God. God cannot create a rational creature without ordering the creature to Himself. Rational creatures seek explanations, and the ultimate explanation is God because He orders all things. On a purely natural level, the purpose of our existence is to seek, know, and love God.
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things which have been made.” – Romans 1:19-20.
Our Purpose in Life
Given that this is the purpose of human nature, it must be attainable: if the purpose – the natural end – of human nature is unattainable, then that nature becomes purposeless and meaningless. God cannot create a purposeless nature. He inscribes in our hearts the knowledge of Natural Law, to differentiate between good and evil. Part of that law is to love our neighbor.
The Decalogue — the Ten Commandments — are a minimal statement of the Natural Law, that law of God written into human nature, which is written upon the heart. Seven of those ten commandments pertain to our neighbor – to do no evil to our neighbor. The Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Mt 7:12) – is not only an ordinance of grace, it is an ordinance of nature.
The souls in Limbo are in a state of loving communion with each other, contemplating the God of creation known through His creatures. These souls are in a natural state of happiness, experiencing no pain. There is no punishment, nor are they suffering a purification. They feel no sorrow nor any sense of loss. Limbo, then, is not only not a place of “abandoned souls”, it is not a place of isolated contemplation.
This is how God created these souls to love Him. The souls in Limbo cannot possibly know of the supernatural destiny of heaven precisely because it is supernatural. As St. Paul teaches: “What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” – 1 Corinthians 2:9
Purpose Fulfilled
The children in Limbo, then, are fulfilling the purpose of their existence. This is a part of God’s design and a great mystery: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”… For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen “(Rom 11:33-36). Limbo isn’t a place we should fear or worry for our children who may be there.
For some readers, this may be the first time hearing about Limbo or you’ve heard but believe this is very old and no longer true. The earliest documentation on Limbo is from St. Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 40, (329-390AD). It is also found in the Catechism of the Council of Trent (1545-1563 AD), the Catechism of Pope Saint Pius X (1908), and the Baltimore Catechism. The debates about the Limbo of the Infants likely arose as a response to questions about where unbaptized children go when they die on account of Original Sin. Clearly, unbaptized babies don’t go to hell as they cannot commit mortal sin, yet without baptism, how can they go directly to Heaven?
The Unbaptized
Pope Saint John Paul II had the International Theological Commission study what happens to unbaptized infants who die. In 2007, Pope Benedict XIV approved a document for publication entitled, The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Baptism13.
“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 remains therefore a possible theological hypothesis. However, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), the theory of limbo is not mentioned. 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.” – excerpt from The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Baptism.
In conclusion, Limbo was the common Catholic teaching until the mid-20th century, it is not dogma, and other opinions do exist.
God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments. – CCC1257
Conclusion
Therefore, God may save anyone He chooses and in theory, you are free to believe your baby is in Heaven. We will not fully understand this as we can only see through our bodily eyes and the lens of our humanity. In the end, all will be revealed and we will understand. Until then, we can still pray for our babies. In fact, you should pray for them.
God will use your prayers as He sees fit. Give your baby a proper name and while you go through your grieving process, talk with your baby; in the same way you talk with God or another loved one who is deceased. Visit your baby’s grave, which can be very comforting, especially in the early months of loss and on anniversaries. Your goal is to know God, love Him, and serve Him so you can be happy with Him forever in Heaven. You will want for nothing when you are in eternal happiness with God.