An item in today’s Times reports a new and important result from a major European research facility. After years of painstaking investigation, the Vatican has announced that Limbo, an area where the souls of unbaptized babies and of the multitudes who lived before the time of Christ were previously understood to dwell — not in communion with God, but enjoying “eternal happiness” nevertheless — has been found not to exist. This significant discovery has presumably been announced only after extensive peer review.
Further research may be necessary to determine the status of the individuals thereby displaced; as of now, the provisional theory consists of a “prayerful hope that they reach Heaven”. Heaven itself, of course, is still presumed to exist, barring experimental disconfirmation, occupying as it does a central position in what might be termed the “Standard Model”.