Madam, - My late mother had six children, four of whom died in infancy. Her first child was born in May, 1945 and the second was born in November, 1946. I mention these two children for a particular reason. The child lived only a few minutes after birth and the second was stillborn.
In those days a child was often taken away from the mother as soon as it was born. My mother realised to her indescribable sadness that her first child had died and a couple of days later she asked one of the nurses had the baby been buried yet. "Yes," came the icy reply, "but not in consecrated ground!" The baby had died before it could be baptised. The second child, being stillborn, was also not baptised.
My mother spoke about those two babies almost every day till she died in 2003. She went through an agony of grief and sorrow, not just at the loss of two children whom she desperately loved and wanted but also because they might not see the face of God.
My mother was a deeply spiritual person. She constantly went to talk to various priests in the hope of finding some peace and consolation. She constantly questioned how an infinitely good and merciful God could possibly consign two innocent babies to Limbo and not want them in His loving presence. "Surely God could not deprive these little children of eternal happiness in heaven?", she would ask my sister and me.
It now turns out that the International Theological Commission set up by Pope Benedict XVI to look into the whole matter has decided that the concept of Limbo is "neither essential nor necessary". It appears that the Pope has never favoured the idea of Limbo. In 1984, the then Cardinal Ratzinger expressed his own "purely personal" belief that the concept of Limbo had outlived its pastoral value.
We are now told that Limbo was never formally defined in Catholic teaching. So, in other words, my poor mother and countless thousands like her suffered in vain. All her anxiety and sorrow could have been dispelled if only someone had told her at the time that Limbo was not an essential part of Catholic teaching. All over the world people suffered because of this notion of Limbo. I really do not know whether to be delighted or angry at the announcement that it has been abandoned. I know that a loving God could not turn away from an innocent child or from the heart of my gentle mother.
I am angry that she was caused so much unnecessary pain on top of the pain of the loss of her children. It consoles me to think that she and my father are now with them in God's loving presence. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY REDMOND, Dublin 12.