On the kids-only edition of Catholic Answers Live, Fr. Hugh Barbour discusses the Church’s traditional teaching on whether the Garden of Eden still exists.
Transcript:
Host: Let’s go to Madison from Wichita, Kansas, seven years old. Madison, welcome to Catholic Answers Live.
Caller: Hi, I’m very excited.
Host: Okay, what’s your question, dear?
Caller: Where’s the Garden of Eden, and does it still exist?
Fr. Hugh: Well, the tradition of the fathers is that the Garden of Eden still exists. Now of course, if you go to your religious education class in the parish, they might not back me up on this point, but I’m just telling you what the fathers of the Church say: that it’s still there, but it’s invisible and inaccessible. That is, you can’t get to it and you can’t see it, because God has hidden it from view since our first parents were sent out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin. So yes, in the tradition of the Church, it still exists, and it might have in it, for example Enoch and Elias and other holy personages who are awaiting the second coming of Christ.
But that’s a little complicated for you at the age of seven. But let’s just say: in the tradition of the Church, yes, it still exists, but it’s not something that we can find or discover, and so it might as well not exist as far as we’re concerned, but there you are.
Host: How’s that, Madison? Does that help?
Caller: Thank you. Yeah, it really helps.
Fr. Hugh: Sure, God bless you.