Can you baptize the dead?

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wjp984 said:
but an infant can’t desire baptism yet he or she is baptized. If an infant can’t desire baptism, then whose desire is it to have the infant baptized? Therefore, I still think a parent’s desire for baptism would apply to an infant. Either that or infant baptism does not seem valid to me.
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Infant Baptism is Sacramental Baptism, not Baptism of Desire.
 
Wasn’t much of the pain St. Mary Faustina suffered on behalf of children who died, especially those killed by abortion? So perhaps, even if the child (Requiescat in Pace, Resurgamque)wasn’t alive when baptized, something else will suffice to save its soul. I do agree, however, that we don’t exactly know when death actually occurs, mostly since we don’t know what “life” is, exactly.

Offer the repose of the souls of miscarried, stillborn, and aborted children as a rosary/prayer/Mass intention.
 
And to the Original Post.

No you cannot baptize the dead.

Baptism is a cleaning of the soul of the stain of Original Sin, the impartation of Salvic Grace and the installment on the soul of the a permanent ‘character’.

All of those require the soul to be present. If the body is dead, then, by definition, the soul is no longer there.

There is nothing left to Baptize.
 
Hastrman said:
Wasn’t much of the pain St. Mary Faustina suffered on behalf of children who died, especially those killed by abortion? So perhaps, even if the child (Requiescat in Pace, Resurgamque)wasn’t alive when baptized, something else will suffice to save its soul. I do agree, however, that we don’t exactly know when death actually occurs, mostly since we don’t know what “life” is, exactly.

Offer the repose of the souls of miscarried, stillborn, and aborted children as a rosary/prayer/Mass intention.
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Sure God could supply the Grace of Baptism outside the Sacrament of Baptism, but this does not require any physical action on our part.
 
decn2b said:
Mormons do it all the time. Its called baptism by proxy. It has alot to do with their religion coming into existance after some many centuries. That is why they are so into genealogy. They can baptise dead relatives by proxy (someone standing in their place). The reason is some of their relatives may hav lived in times before the “prophet” came.
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I have a friend who years back left the Church and turned Mormon. Her father (Catholic) passed away several years ago. A few months after his funeral—this friend told me they were going to baptize her father into the Mormom Church. :eek: This was the first time a had heard of such a thing. I don’t know if they went thru with the procedure.
 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

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.

1684 The Christian funeral confers on the deceased neither a sacrament nor a sacramental since he has "passed" beyond the sacramental economy. It is nonetheless a liturgical celebration of the Church.[185] The ministry of the Church aims at expressing efficacious communion with the deceased, at the participation in that communion of the community gathered for the funeral and at the proclamation of eternal life to the community.

(emphasis my own)

The latter quote refers to funeral rites explicitly, but it also refers to the fact that the deceased have passed beyond the “sacramental economy” and thus from the authority of the Church Militant (the Church on earth) to offer the sacraments of the living. It may be possible to confer a conditional baptism for those may be possibly alive, as has already been stated. My condolences go out to the family of the deceased children. We must trust in God’s mercy; at the same time we must be willing to adhere to the will of God who stated that baptism is necessary for everlasting life. To do otherwise would be to engage in wishful thinking if it is not compatible with the Divine Will.
 
Walking_Home said:
I have a friend who years back left the Church and turned Mormon. Her father (Catholic) passed away several years ago. A few months after his funeral—this friend told me they were going to baptize her father into the Mormom Church. :eek: This was the first time a had heard of such a thing. I don’t know if they went thru with the procedure.
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An interesting thing- free will. All his life that man had the free will to enter the Mormon Church and never did. Then if the procedure had taken place: Then just because he died, his wishes are disrespected, his intention dishonored, his exhibition of his free will choice overridden, and he gets baptised by proxy. It’s almost like living in a communist regime. But fortunately we know that baptism against free will is not a baptism and therefore his Mormon baptism was a meaningless act.
 
As this is the Liturgy & Sacraments Forum, the discussions center around the liturgical and sacramental life of Catholics. Those wishing to inquire further into the practices of other faiths are free to do so in the appropriate forum.
 
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