Dear Editor:
In the article of 1/02/04, A Failed Pregnancy? by Philip D. Canon, DO, Dr. Canon, in speaking of a deceased fetus writes:
“But God brings these precious souls directly to Himself and they live with Him for all eternity.”
While this is our hope that God somehow brings these little ones salvation, it is not Catholic teaching to merely assert it. The assertion has implications for the whole teaching concerning sin and redemption and the necessity of Baptism.
Ray Cote
Dear CE,
“But God brings these precious souls directly to Himself and they live with Him for all eternity. They are spared the struggles of this life and their joy is already complete. Although we who love them mourn the natural life we would have shared with them, our loss is temporary for, by God's grace, we can be re-united with them eventually.”
This should be presented as the author’s speculation. Not as something the Church teaches. The Church considers the fate of those who die in the womb a mystery.
Thank You,
Scott Larkins
To Catholic Exchange:
The article, A Failed Pregnancy?, which was on your website today, stated the following about miscarried babies, “But God brings these precious souls directly to Himself and they live with Him for all eternity.” This is not what the Catechism says!
Unsigned
Dear Dr. Caron and Catholic Exchange:
I just want to thank you for the beautiful and compassionate article on the loss of a child through miscarriage. I can't tell you what a blessing your words were to me. I am the mother of 4 children, three of whom are my angel-babies who are with Jesus in heaven. I know, that through God's Infinite Mercy and grace, I will meet them one day in our heavenly home.
My heart ached in unison with the family you wrote about as I experienced my last loss in July of 2003. It was particularly difficult because my gynecologist was very young and inexperienced and immediately, without my consent, began scheduling a D&C when I wasn't even showing signs of miscarriage. While I expected to see my baby's heartbeat at my first prenatal visit at 10 weeks, I was told instead that I didn't have a “viable pregnancy” and that was that.
I absolutely refused to have the D&C because even though I knew the pain and agony that I would be suffering in the very near future, I believe that God is in control and that I needed to have things happen naturally. It did. About a week later…as I was visiting the grounds of the Sorrowful Mother Shrine on vacation in Bellevue, Ohio, I began to spot. Later that week I went to the hospital in a small resort town in Michigan and for the first time, after having experienced three miscarriages…a medical professional, a nurse, in fact, looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I'm so sorry that you are losing your baby.”
She will probably never know what balm her words were to my broken heart. Her acknowledgement of my baby and my pain was the very first tiny step toward my healing.
As I was praying through the New Year these past couple of days, I recognized the voice of the Spirit in the depths of my heart. He is stirring me to be open again to the gift of life and I know that I am. I am deeply grateful for doctors like you who are tender and merciful and kind, in the image of Christ, and who recognize and embrace His Precious Gift of life.
Thank you for the article. God Bless you and yours,
Anne Costa
Dear Readers,
We thank all of you for your responses which engendered a very genuine Catholic Exchange on this issue so close to all our hearts.
First of all thanks to Ray, Scott, and our unnamed writer for the very pertinent point that that the statement in the article about the condition of infants who die before birth was indeed a personal expression of the confidence of the author rather than a doctrinal statement. That seems clear in the context of the article, but we welcome the opportunity to reiterate that it is never our intention to present as Catholic doctrine any thing other than what the Church does teach.
On this subject the Catechism says: As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,” allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism (CCC 1261).
If we are indeed allowed to hope, then what that hope is could not be better expressed than by the words of Anne Costa. Like so many other heroic Catholic mothers who remain steadfastly open to life despite the pain of loss, she stands as a sign of contradiction to our sex-obsessed culture of death that celebrates Onanism and throws babies in trash bins. We pray that God open her womb and that another infant is soon encircled in her arms.
Mrs. Mary Kochan
Contributing Editor, Catholic Exchange
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