I have something nice to say

about the new Pope. Here it is:

Recently, the Catholic Church abolished limbo. It was kind of a silly theory which promulgated babies who died before receiving their baptism spent their afterlife not in heaven, but in a quasi-waiting room called "limbo." Here, the soul existed comfortably in eternity but never truly attained perfection. It was dreamt up by church leaders in the middle ages to soften the prevailing wisdom at the time, which suggested that anyone who wasn't baptized was doomed to hell.

Well, as it turns out, that's not really the case. Like so much of the prevailing wisdom that came out of the middle ages it tuned out to be short sighted, paranoid, and illogical.

Among the Church's most influential critics of limbo, and of the whole "unbaptized babies will burn in hell" school of thought, turns out to be Pope Benedict XIV. As a Cardinal, he wrote:

"men who are seeking for God and who are inwardly striving toward that which constitutes baptism will also receive salvation."

It's encouraging to hear that the Pope places so much value in one's internal search for God. Ultimately, I guess that's what religion should be all about--reaching within oneself to understand the beauty and greatness of God. Reconciling that search and understanding
with worldly matters comes second.