Can a faithful Roman Catholic today adopt St. Thomas’ position on salvation theology? No, he cannot. For Saint Thomas died over 700 years ago. If a Catholic today were to adopt St. Thomas’ position on any theological question, with no regard for magisterial teaching on the same topic for the past 700 years, he would sin by treating the Magisterium of the Church with disregard and by treating the theological opinion of St. Thomas as if it were dogma.

Can a faithful Roman Catholic today adopt the teaching of Pope Saint Pius X on salvation theology? Not unless he also takes account of the development of doctrine and additional magisterial teachings since that time. For Pope Saint Pius X died almost 100 years ago. Each Pope can and does exercise the Magisterium. But we cannot adhere to the teachings of only one Pope, and treat all his successors with contempt or disregard.

The infallible teachings of the Magisterium are certainly true. Every infallible teaching of the Magisterium is irreformable because truth does not change. Therefore, we must adhere to those teachings with the full assent of faith.

However, many of the teachings of the Magisterium are non-infallible and non-irreformable. These teachings may contain some error, but never to the extent of leading the faithful away from the path of salvation. Therefore, our assent to non-infallible teachings is not the full assent of faith, but the related act called religious assent (the religious submission of will and intellect).

Some faithful dissent from non-infallible teachings is possible, to a limited extent, especially when a subsequent teaching of the Magisterium indicates a development of doctrine on that subject. The development of doctrine under the guidance and authority of the Magisterium not only corrects errors in the theology of Saints, but also corrects errors in past non-infallible teachings of the Magisterium.

The idea of limbo as a third final destination was at best a non-infallible teaching of the Magisterium. But given the recent teachings on salvation theology by the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that idea is no longer tenable. As Pope John Paul II taught in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio:

“The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church. The social and cultural conditions in which they live do not permit this, and frequently they have been brought up in other religious traditions. For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation.

“For this reason the Council, after affirming the centrality of the Paschal Mystery, went on to declare that ‘this applies not only to Christians but to all people of good will in whose hearts grace is secretly at work. Since Christ died for everyone, and since the ultimate calling of each of us comes from God and is therefore a universal one, we are obliged to hold that the Holy Spirit offers everyone the possibility of sharing in this Paschal Mystery in a manner known to God.‘ ” (Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, n. 10; citing Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, n. 22.)

We are obliged by faith to believe that the Holy Spirit offers EVERYONE the possibility of sharing in the eternal salvation obtained by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Therefore, given this recent teaching of the Magisterium, we can no longer hold that unbaptized infants and especially prenatals (who cannot possibly be baptized) end up in Limbo as a third final destination, nor in the limbo of Hell.

Certain unfaithful teachers of the Catholic faith today are boldly claiming that prenatals, infants, and young children, who die at that tender age, cannot possibly go to Heaven. These false teachers utterly ignore the Second Vatican Council’s teaching. They ignore every recent magisterial teaching that is not in agreement with their own ultra-conservative views. Moreover, when they use the teachings of Saint Thomas and Pope Pius X to condemn little children, either to Limbo as a third final destination or to the limbo of Hell, they badly misinterpret what was said in past magisterial teachings.

Do you really believe that if Saint Thomas were alive today, he would ignore and contradict the recent teachings of the Magisterium on any subject, let alone on salvation? All Saints teach from Tradition, Scripture, Magisterium, not from their own ideas, not from liberalism or conservatism, and not solely from magisterial teachings before a certain date.

Do you really believe that, if Pope Saint Pius X were alive today (let’s say, as a retired Pope emeritus), he would reject the teachings of an Ecumenical Council or of any of the valid successors of Saint Peter in any generation?

Neither Saint Thomas nor Pope Saint Pius X nor any past Pope or Saint, if they were alive today, would hold that prenatals, infants, and young children are sent to Limbo as a third final destination or to the limbo of Hell because that idea is not compatible with current magisterial teaching. And they would each and all be appalled whenever their names were invoked in contradiction to the teaching of Jesus through His Church.

But then most of these false teachers, when they happily exclude innocent little children from the happiness of Heaven, take no notice of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. They loudly proclaim that no one can obtain eternal salvation except through Jesus, and then they reject the teaching of Jesus on salvation:

[Matthew]
{18:1} In that hour, the disciples drew near to Jesus, saying, “Whom do you consider to be greater in the kingdom of heaven?”
{18:2} And Jesus, calling to himself a little child, placed him in their midst.
{18:3} And he said: “Amen I say to you, unless you change and become like little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
{18:4} Therefore, whoever will have humbled himself like this little child, such a one is greater in the kingdom of heaven.
{18:5} And whoever shall accept one such little child in my name, accepts me.

Not only do all little children go to Heaven, but little children are greater in Heaven. Moreover, our Lord goes so far as to teach that ONLY little children go to Heaven. If you die at a very advanced age, you will not have eternal life in Heaven unless you lived and died in the innocence and humility of a little child.

{18:6} But whoever will have led astray one of these little ones, who trust in me, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck, and to be submerged in the depths of the sea.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.