Readers know how fundamental the doctrine of Original Sin is to the Faith, and how it is under attack today. For example, disbelief begets tolerance for abortion. Bishops today simply do not believe that infants who die without Baptism are unable to enter Heaven. So, what do they believe about the doctrine of Original Sin? The following account, written by a bishop, shows how the doctrine has been watered down. St. Augustine, Pray for Us!
“In the story that we are considering [Ch. 3 of Genesis], still a further characteristic of sin is described. Sin is not spoken of in general as an abstract possibility but as a deed, as the sin of a particular person, Adam, who stands at the origin of humankind and with whom the history of sin begins. The account tells us that sin begets sin, and that therefore all the sins of history are interlinked. Theology refers to this state of affairs by the certainly misleading and imprecise term ‘original sin’. What does this mean? Nothing seems to us today to be stranger or, indeed, more absurd than to insist upon original sin, since, according to our way of thinking, guilt can only be something very personal, and since God does not run a concentration camp, in which one’s relatives are imprisoned because he is a liberating God of love, who calls each one by name. What does original sin mean, then, when we interpret it correctly?
“Finding an answer to this requires nothing less than trying to understand the human person better. It must once again be stressed that no human being is closed in upon himself or herself and that no one can live of or for himself or herself alone. We receive our life not only at the moment of birth but every day from without - from others who are not ourselves but who nonetheless somehow pertain to us. Human beings have their selves not only in themselves but also outside of themselves: they live in those whom they love and in those who love them and to whom they are ‘present.’ Human beings are relational, and they possess their lives - themselves - only by way of relationship. I alone am not myself, but only in and with you am I myself. To be truly a human being means to be related in love, to be of and for. But sin means the damaging or the destruction of relationality. Sin is a rejection of relationality because it wants to make the human being a god. Sin is loss of relationship, disturbance of relationship, and therefore it is not restricted to the individual. When I destroy a relationship, then this event - sin - touches the other person involved in the relationship. Consequently sin is always an offense that touches others, that alters the world and damages it. To the extent that this is true, when the network of human relationships is damaged from the very beginning, then every human being enters into a world that is marked by relational damage. At the very moment that a person begins human existence, which is a good, he or she is confronted by a sin- damaged world. Each of us enters into a situation in which relationality has been hurt. Consequently each person is, from the very start, damaged in relationships and does not engage in them as he or she ought. Sin pursues the human being, and he or she capitulates to it.”
I heard an Oblate's sermon recently, in which he stated that aborted babies go to heaven. He then proceeded to verify this with an account of a repentant woman's account (she had had an abortion)of the visions she now experiences in which she sees apparitions of once-aborted babies who come to ask for prayers for their parents! He seemed to imply that these visions were approved by the Ordinary. (No, I don't believe it.)
After the Mass, I told people outside that unbaptized babies go to Limbo. A man told me that the church no longer teaches that. It is very frustrating. Sometime I wonder why I speak up.
No good deed should go unpunished, Martha. Pelagianism is rampant these days. Another example is the so-called "Priests for Life" group. If you challenge them, they'll reference Pope John Paul II.
"No good deed should go unpunished" Oh, dear. You mean God will punish me for troubling consciences? :-)
I did tell the man that even in the New Catechism, the most that is expressed about babies without baptism, is the HOPE that they attain the Beatific Vision. He proceeded to tell me that meant that they will not see God, IF we don't pray for them. But that our prayers will get those babies to heaven. I couldn't say much else, because he was not listen.
Some others believe that aborted babies go to heaven because of "development of doctrine".
It is so disheartening.
"Martha, Martha, thou art full of cares, and art troubled by many things."
All that is necessary is to quote the latest development from then-Cardinal Ratzinger, above. Or there might be something newer. Understanding is ever progressing, you know. ;-)
Have a happy feast day tomorrow.
(The quote in the article is taken from the book "In the Beginning…A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall" by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, William B. Erdmans Publishing Co., 1995, p. 71.)