The backbreaker

[Angrboda]

Until the '80's at least limbo was a central rcc doctrine, haing the seal of papal infallibility and all. Stillborn infants couldn't be buried on "consecrated" ground because of it. The main reason it is now relegated to speculation is because it was deemed to be losing the church adherents and also peripheral enough to drop without controversy or notice.

It was a theological speculation and not a doctrine.

As for losing adherents, the Catholic Church is actually growing.

As a proportion of the global population, the Catholic community has remained fairly static at about 17.5 per cent for the past 50 years.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/th.../55152.htm