[BTirish]

I would suggest that everyone wait for the actual release of the document before jumping to any wild conclusions. Just as with the Instruction on the admission of homosexuals to the seminary, the media's ignorant characterization of the document and the actual content of the document may very well be rather different. If someone has actually seen a draft of the Commission's document and can correct me, please do so.

It is an error to assert the existence of Limbo with the same degree of certainty that one believes in the existence of Heaven and Hell. It is, as Peter has pointed out, a theological possibility inasmuch as it is a logical possibility.

There is a difference between ceasing to teach the existence of Limbo and definitively asserting the non-existence of Limbo. From all reports that I have seen, the new document will be suggesting the former rather than asserting the latter. Whether this is a prudent judgment remains to be debated, but as much as Limbo is itself a speculative hypothesis, this debate and the variety of opinions possible concerning it shouldn't trouble a faithful Catholic.

This document will be a product of a theological commission that is meant to advise the Pope and the magisterium. The document itself carries no weight. His Holiness did assert around 20 years ago that he, speaking not as the head of the CDF but as a theologian, would "drop" discussion of the theological hypothesis that is Limbo. Again, as I have said, there is a difference between dropping it from discussion and asserting that it is not a possibility.

One would think that someone who is familiar with Ott and who knows the various degrees of certainty attached to doctrinal propositions would also know the difference between a theological commission's documents and a magisterial pronouncement.

(There has been some confusion about exactly who will be publishing the document. It is the International Theological Commission, not the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that has authored this document. I think the confusion has arisen because the head of the CDF, Archbishop Levada, is also the president of the ITC.)