Those who Die in Original Sin or Mortal Sin descend into Hell

By Brother Peter Dimond, O.S.B.

Source: vaticancatholic.com

As I have proven above, there is no possible way for children to be freed from original sin other than through the Sacrament of Baptism.  This, of course, proves that there is no way for infants to be saved other than through the Sacrament of Baptism.  So the following definitions merely affirm what has already been established: no child can possibly enter the kingdom of Heaven without receiving water baptism, but will rather descend into Hell.

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Letentur coeli,” Sess. 6, July 6, 1439, ex cathedra: “We define also that… the souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go straightaway to hell, but to undergo punishments of different kinds.”[1]

Pope Pius VI, Auctorem fidei, Aug. 28, 1794:
“26.  The doctrine which rejects as a Pelagian fable, that place of the lower regions (which the faithful generally designate by the name of the limbo of the children) in which the souls of those departing with the sole guilt of original sin are punished with the punishment of the condemned, exclusive of the punishment of fire, just as if, by this very fact, that these who remove the punishment of fire introduced that middle place and state free of guilt and of punishment between the kingdom of God and eternal damnation, such as that about which the Pelagians idly talk” – Condemned as false, rash, injurious to Catholic schools.[2]

Here Pope Pius VI condemns the idea of some theologians that infants who die in original sin suffer the fires of Hell.  At the same time, he confirms that these infants do go to a part of the lower regions (i.e., Hell) called the limbo of the children.  They do not go to Heaven, but to a place in Hell where there is no fire.  This is perfectly in accord with all of the other solemn definitions of the Church, which teach that infants who die without water baptism descend into Hell, but suffer a punishment different from those who die in mortal sin.  Their punishment is eternal separation from God.

Pope Pius XI, Mit brennender Sorge (# 25), March 14, 1937: “‘Original sin’ is the hereditary but impersonal fault of Adam’s descendants, who have sinned in him (Rom. v. 12).  It is the loss of grace, and therefore eternal life, together with a propensity to evil, which everybody must, with the assistance of grace, penance, resistance and moral effort, repress and conquer.”[3]