Limbo officially gone! Russia and U.S. share missiles, peacefully coexist!

I love studying history, but a glance backward to recent history can be a little embarassing. For example, a few years back, my son gave me a DVD of the movie "Easy Rider." It was so facile and embarassing! And to remember how moved I'd been by it when it first came out, how righteous...
My only material inheritance from my dad, who died when I was 21, was his 30-year collection of Time magazines, from 1939 to 1969. I'm proud that in my moves since then, I've packed this collection along with me, never chucking the less-than-mint magazines.
So, last month, as my choir rehearsed the moving, meditative Polish anthem "Totus Tuus," written in celebration of Pope John Paul II's homeland trip in 1982, I retrieved that year's "Man of the Year" issue featuring Lech Walesa. I read of the faith of the Polish people in their religion, and their icons, among them the Virgin Mary and the Pope himself. This deeply-held belief nourished the labor movement Solidarity that was criucial in overthrowing the Communist regime in Poland.
Last week I browsed through the Time magazines again, concentrating on the 50s, hoping to find information about the Suez War -- 1956?-- and instead was struck by the number of covers dedicated to the prospect of nucleur confrontation with Russia. Month after month, the Time covers forebode the threat of missile attack on the U.S.
Now it hardly seems real, as I read: "Pentagon invites Kremlin to Link Missile Systems: The U.S. is offering Russia a new package of incentives to drop its opposition to U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic."
What a difference 50 years make!

In the passion and horror of the moment, the long view is often hard to see.
How fervently we prayed for the conversion of atheistic Russia to a free and Christian, if not Catholic, country.

I also learned through the NY Times today that Pope Benedict has wiped limbo off the map of Catholic doctrine:

The netherworld of limbo, long speculated in Roman Catholic teaching as the destination of babies who die unbaptized, has been replaced with the “prayerful hope” that they reach heaven. Pope Benedict XVI signed a theological report, years in the making, that effectively demoted limbo, a place neither in heaven nor in hell, where unbaptized babies would not be in communion with God but would nonetheless enjoy eternal happiness. Many in the church felt the idea, never formally a part of church doctrine, was outdated and caused undue worry for parents.
Well it may never have been formal church doctrine, but our teachers made sure we knew about limbo, as they taught the importance of being formally baptized. There is a sense of betrayal or abuse, that as impressionable children, and even gullible, or faith-centered adults, we were taught to fear concepts like Communism, missile attacks, and limbo.