Limbo. In Catholic theology, Limbo is a postulated viewpoint concerning the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of western Europe described the underworld as divided into four distinct parts: Hell of the Damned, Purgatory, Limbo of the Fathers or Patriarchs, and Limbo of the Infants. However, Limbo of the Infants is not an official doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Limbo of the Patriarchs or Limbo of the Fathers is seen as the temporary state of those who, despite the sins they may have committed, died in the friendship of God but could not enter Heaven until redemption by Jesus Christ made it possible. The term Limbo of the Fathers was a medieval name for the part of the underworld where the patriarchs of the Old Testament were believed to be kept until Christ's soul descended into it by his death through crucifixion and freed them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes Christ's descent into Hell as meaning primarily that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into Hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. It adds: But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there. It does not use the word Limbo. This concept of Limbo affirms that admittance to Heaven is possible only through the intervention of Jesus Christ, but does not portray Moses, etc. as being punished eternally in Hell. The concept of Limbo of the Patriarchs is not spelled out in Scripture, but is seen by some as implicit in various references. Luke 16:22 speaks of the bosom of Abraham, which both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, following early Christian writers, understand as a temporary state of souls awaiting entrance into Heaven. The end of that state is set either at the Resurrection of the Dead, the most common interpretation in the East, or at the Harrowing of Hell, the most common interpretation in the West, but adopted also by some in the East. Jesus told the Good Thief that the two of them would be together this day in Paradise; but on the Sunday of his resurrection he said that he had not yet ascended to the Father. Some say that the descent of Jesus to the abode of the dead, his presence among them, turned it into a paradise. Others understand the text to mean not I say to you, This day you will be with me in paradise, but I say to you this day, You will be with me in paradise. Timothy Radcliffe explained the today as a reference to the Today of eternity. Jesus is also described as preaching to the spirits in prison. Medieval drama sometimes portrayed Christ leading a dramatic assault, The Harrowing of Hell, during the three days between the Crucifixion and the resurrection. In this assault, Jesus freed the souls of the just and escorted them triumphantly into heaven. This imagery is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church's Holy Saturday liturgy and in Eastern Orthodox icons of the Resurrection of Jesus. The doctrine expressed by the term Limbo of the Fathers was taught, for instance, by Clement of Alexandria, who maintained: It is not right that these should be condemned without trial, and that those alone who lived after the coming should have the advantage of the divine righteousness. The Limbo of Infants is the hypothetical permanent status of the unbaptized who die in infancy, too young to have committed actual sins, but not having been freed from original sin. Recent Catholic theological speculation tends to stress the hope, although not the certainty, that these infants may attain heaven instead of the state of Limbo. While the Catholic Church has a defined doctrine on original sin, it has none on the eternal fate of unbaptized infants, leaving theologians free to propose different theories, which magisterium is free to accept or reject. Limbo is one such theory. In countering Pelagius, who denied original sin, Saint Augustine of Hippo was led to state that because of original sin, such infants as quit the body without being baptized will be involved in the mildest condemnation of all. That person, therefore, greatly deceives both himself and others, who teaches that they will not be involved in condemnation; whereas the apostle says: Judgment from one offence to condemnation, and again a little after: By the offence of one upon all persons to condemnation.