Do Catholics believe in limbo?

Suppose a person were able to time-travel back 800 years and visit Catholic Europe. Despite the common notion that Catholicism remained fixed and unchanging prior to the Second Vatican Council, a theoretical time traveler would find many Catholic beliefs and practices that would seem strange. Some traditions Catholics imagine were deeply rooted in history are relatively recent and weren’t around during the golden age of Christendom. Whereas other traditions that once were common have been repudiated by the institutional church or faded into disuse. One tradition that a time-traveler would likely encounter among educated medieval Catholics is belief in limbo—that is, a kind of in-between afterlife zone for unbaptized babies and virtuous non-Christians. Belief in limbo was so common that Dante depicted it in his theological afterlife epic The Divine Comedy. But do Catholics still believe in limbo? Where did the idea come from? Was it an official magisterial teaching and, if so, why do we rarely hear about it today?  On this episode of the podcast, Claretian Father Paul Keller talks to the hosts about the concept of limbo, how it is different from purgatory, where the idea originated, and what the church actually teaches about the unbaptized and the afterlife today. Keller is the provincial superior of the Claretian Missionaries of the United States-Canada Province, and a frequent contributor to U.S. Catholic on issues relating to pastoral ministry, public policy, theology, and ethics.  You can learn more about this topic in the links below. The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html “Pope Benedict 'closed' Limbo and no one complained” by Thomas Reese. https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/pope-benedict-closed-limbo-and-no-one-complained “Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries” by Philip Pullella. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-pope-limbo/catholic-church-buries-limbo-after-centuries-idUKL2038306520070420 “Ask an Apostle: My priest says limbo is real” by Teresa Coda. https://uscatholic.org/articles/202106/ask-an-apostle-my-priest-says-limbo-is-real/ “Can the church change?” by Don Clemmer. https://uscatholic.org/articles/202308/can-the-church-change/ Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries. https://www.claretiansusa.org/