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Dear Catholic Exchange:
My Family has always been Catholic. However, as the years have gone by I have found that my family (mother, brothers and sisters) are have followed different paths. I am most concerned about a brother. I have learned, now 8 yrs later, following the birth of his son – he no longer believes in Christ or God. Mike came to understand that we are all born with sin, that a person must accept Christ by him/her-self, and baptized of own free will to go to heaven. Seemingly then an unborn or infant child who dies cannot go to heaven. He cannot accept such a possibility, and has denounced all Christianity.
I have learned these concepts, but never heard this conclusion till recently.
I am in search of scripture/doctrine/policy relating to this area.
Can you help?
Thank you.
Norman
Dear Norman:
Here is what the Catechism has to say about baptism (including the baptism of children). Pay special attention to CCC 1260-1261):
1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation.[59] He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them.[60] Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament.[61] The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.
1258 The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament.
1259 For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament.
1260 “Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.”[62] Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.
1261 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,”[63] 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.
God is not out to get us. He loves your brother's children more than your brother does, not less. So it is possible to hope for those who have not received sacramental baptism. Indeed, the Holy Innocents were unbaptized, except in the blood of their martyrdom, likewise the Good Thief had only the baptism of desire.
But the fact that God is not bound by the sacraments does not mean that we are not. Indeed, it makes no sense to withhold from children the very thing that God offers for their salvation. It's like having a sick child and then refusing the penicillin the doctor wants to give on the grounds that if the doctor really cared he wouldn't prescribe penicillin. God *doesn't* desire that any be lost. So he has provided, at the cost of his own blood, a means of salvation. It's one of the mysteries of our species that we can look at that kind of self-sacrificial love and, instead of saying, “Thank you”, get angry at God.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
