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The Holy Innocents and the Aborted Babies: Is it a False Analogy?
Imagine that you live in Bethlehem and you’re a Jewish mother or father. You have heard all the wonderful news. A star appeared over your town. Wealthy kings from the East came bearing gifts and the shepherds of the region are telling everyone about a recent apparition of angels. There was a mysterious and humble couple living in a cave, but now they’re gone. Everyone is confused but knows that something wonderful has happened in Bethlehem.
You have five children and the youngest is a one and a half year old son. His name is Jonathan. As a faithful Jew, you circumcised him on the eighth day. That morning, the soldiers of Herod enter the town unexpected. They break into your house and immediately slay your beautiful little boy. They leave his bloody body on the floor of your home.
The death of children is one of the most sorrowful experiences of humanity. These mothers and fathers were not comforted like the mother of her seven sons in Maccabees. They did not know that their children were the proto-martyrs of the Messiah. They did not yet understand this tragedy. No doubt, they were comforted in some mystical way by the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and the intercession of Christ their Lord. Moreover, their holy children would be interceding for them. Nevertheless, it was a terribly sad day that was followed by many burials.
Many today connect the mystery of the Holy Innocents to the tragedy of abortion. This is a false analogy and we should be careful not to make it. There are a number of reasons why the analogy does not hold.
The Holy Innocents were circumcised (the Old Testament equivalent of baptism). Their parents had included the Holy Innocents within the covenant and religion of God. Aborted children are not baptized by desire, by blood, or by sacramental water baptism. Pope Sixtus V issued an Apostolic Constitution in 1588 on this subject of abortion:
“Noticing that frequently by various Apostolic Constitutions the audacity and daring of most profligate men, who know no restraint, of sinning with license against the commandment “do not kill” was repressed; We who are placed by the Lord in the supreme throne of justice, being counseled by a most just reason, are in part renewing old laws and in part extending them in order to restrain with just punishment the monstrous and atrocious brutality of those who have no fear to kill most cruelly fetuses still hiding in the maternal wombs. Who will not detest such an abhorrent and evil act, by which are lost not only the bodies but also the souls?” {Pope Sixtus V, Apostolic Constitution Effraenatam (Against Abortionists), 29 October 1588}
The Holy Father teaches that abortionists cause aborted children to lose both their bodies and their souls. Abortion mills are not baptismal fonts. They are not places of sacramental grace. Abortionists are not priests. They don’t have the sacred power to send children to Heaven.
But surely you’re not saying that aborted babies go to the fires Hell, are you? No, of course not. I am not saying that aborted babies go to the fires of Hell. To affirm that infants are tormented in Hell would be heresy and contrary to the teaching of Saints Gregory Nazianzus, Thomas Aquinas & Bonaventure, and contrary to the infallible decree of the Second Council of Lyons in A.D. 1274 and the infallible decree of the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439. Both councils teach that those that die with original sin alone receive a different punishment than those who die with original sin and actual sins that they have committed.
So where do they go?
Pope Saint Pius X tell us in the Catechism of Pope Saint Pius X, first published in 1910 AD:
Question 100 – Where do infants go who die without Baptism?Answer – Infants who die without Baptism go to Limbo where they do not enjoy the sight of God, but also do no suffer. This is because having original sin, and it alone, they do not merit heaven, but neither do they merit purgatory or hell.
Here come the groans. “Oh Dr. Marshall, surely you don’t believe in limbo, do you? Don’t you know that the New York Times declared that the Pope admitted that this was bad theology and his been replaced by the Balthasarian message of hope for universal salvation and the Rahnerian doctrine of personal transcendence? Get with the program.”
Yes, I know that the New York Times declared that Limbo is no longer true. I also know that the International Theological Commission published a paper upon which all the newspapers pounced. I’ve read it: International Theological Commission Report “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized” (2007). The “International Theological Commission” (ITC) consists of thirty theologians who act as an advisory panel to the Vatican, in particular to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The reports and documents of the ITC are not considered expressions of authoritative Church teaching, but they sometimes set the stage for official Vatican pronouncements. Consequently, a document released by an advisory board is not binding or authoritative on the Catholic Church. While this document calls the limbo of children into question, it by no means closes the door on the traditional teaching of limbo.
The most offensive element of the ITC document is that it essentially ignores what two infallible Ecumenical Councils (Lyons II, and Florence) taught on the subject. For example:
“The souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go down straightaway in infernum to be punished, but with unequal pains.”
-Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Laetentur Caeli, July 6, 1439
That’s difficult teaching in the Council of Florence, but we cannot ignore it. By not weighing this passage (and others) carefully, the ITC is not representing what the magisterium has taught. Two Councils infallibly teach that unbaptized babies with original sin alone do not received the Beatific Vision of God because such a state requires sanctifying grace. It’s in black and white letters for everyone to see. These Councils are just as binding as Trent or Vatican II.
It is very difficult for me to grant this. My own thinking has changed over time. Those who have read this blog for a few years have seen me wrestling through this topic. I also am aware of the pain of women who have had abortions and have repented. Many priests have told them, “Don’t worry, your baby is in Heaven.” These words of comfort are often based on a forged (false) version of Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, no. 99. which does not read “now live with the Lord” (EV, no. 99 is quite a controversy right there, but that’s another blog post for another time.) However, I don’t think that we can say this to mother’s who have had abortions. The truth will set you free, even when the truth is hard to bear. Look, I wish that everyone were going to Heaven and that we did not live a valley of tears. But wishful thinking is not Catholic dogma. We have to listen to Sacred Scripture as interpreted by the Councils and the Popes speaking ex cathedra.
Perhaps what really needs to be done is a theology of natural beatitude as it relates to what has been called “limbo.” What does it mean for a child “not to enjoy the sight of God, but also do no suffer”? How does human nature relate to a natural end without the supernatural? Saint Thomas Aquinas suggests that the infants in limbo receive illumination through the ministry of angels, but do not receive the beatific vision of God. This is the kind of theology that needs to be worked out. We cannot theologize with our emotions. We must be careful with what has been revealed and declared by Holy Mother Church.
I’m sure this will spark some comments. Please be calm and civil.
Holy Innocents, pray for us.
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