Children and purgatory

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famdigy

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Good day friends,

I have a question about purgatory. Do children who die without being baptized have to go to purgatory?
  1. Isn’t it unfair of God to place an innocent child who has not committed any sins in purgatory
  2. Is purgatory a special place or does it happen in the grave
  3. What happens to the child’s soul after finishing purgatory, does it go back to the grave to unite with the body
thanks,
Fam
 
Do children who die without being baptized have to go to purgatory?

The Catholic church has never made an official pronouncement about what happens to unbapized children. Here is what the Church officially teaches about this:

**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.
 
Children who die after being baptized and before the age of reason don’t go to purgatory at all–they go straight to Heaven–that’s why people should wear white at theirr funerals!
 
I think one could make a good case that even an infant who is destined for heaven (baptized or, we may hope, unbaptized), may need to first undergo purgatory. Even though this infant has obviously not committed any personal sin, and has been cleansed of the effect of original sin (otherwise the infant wouldn’t be going to heaven at all), the infant may still need to be purified of its concupicence (tendency or desire to sin) before entering heaven.

People who use the terms “purgatory” and “unfair” together do so quite rightly, but for quite the wrong reasons. There is nothing “fair” about God purifying us unto perfection after death. It is not fair, but it is exceedingly loving and merciful.
 
  1. God is all good. Of course, being all good, His ideas of ‘fairness’ might be slightly different (being perfect) from our imperfect ideas. After all, He ‘rains on the just and unjust alike’. Is it ‘fair’ that the unjust ‘get’ rain too? This boils down to whether you actually trust God, heart and soul, to be GOD. If you do, you will look at ‘appearances’ and say, “I am only a humble servant of God, I will do His will without question”.
Think of Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son, Isaac, despite the ‘appearance’ that this was not only a horrific evil (a father killing his son?), that this would completely DENY God’s early promise to Abraham that “by Isaac you shall have descendents numerous as the stars”.

Yet Abraham believed in God so much so that he was perfectly ready, despite all ‘appearance’ of unfairness, to do God’s will, because He TRUSTED God. Surely we should do this as well. It will be credited to us as righteousness.
  1. Purgatory is a special place for those who will be in heaven after being made completely ‘clean’ through the cleansing fire (as Scripture tells us). No one ever goes to hell after purgatory. Further, at the Last Judgment, there will no further need for cleansing so there will be no further purgatory; all in purgatory until then will have had their ‘chance’ and will be completely clean for heaven.
  2. A soul ‘does not go back to the body in the grave’. Once we are dead, our souls go to heaven, purgatory, or hell. At the Last Judgment, our BODIES will go to either heaven or hell (no purgatory, remember, that will be ‘over’), to be joined with the soul. IOW, it is the BODY which will leave the grave and be made like Christ’s, a glorified body, which will then ‘join’ the soul which itself is already in either heaven or hell.
 
famdigy said:
Good day friends,

I have a question about purgatory. Do children who die without being baptized have to go to purgatory?
  1. Isn’t it unfair of God to place an innocent child who has not committed any sins in purgatory
  2. Is purgatory a special place or does it happen in the grave
  3. What happens to the child’s soul after finishing purgatory, does it go back to the grave to unite with the body
thanks,
Fam
Click to expand...
  1. Purgatory is for Temporal Punishment due for forgiven personal sins. A child under the Age of Reason would not have any Temporal punishment due.
  2. We may believe that Purgatory is either a place or state of the Soul.
  3. A child who dies without Baptism goes directly to wherever it will go, we don’t know where that is exactly, without a stop in Purgatory.
 
Jerry-Jet said:
Children who die after being baptized and before the age of reason don’t go to purgatory at all–they go straight to Heaven–that’s why people should wear white at theirr funerals!
Click to expand...
Please provide the Church teaching that confirms your assertion. The Catechism reference above clearly indicates this is not the case. So, what is your source of information?
 
We have no way of knowing what happens to unbaptized children when they die. On the one hand, because they have never been cleansed of Original Sin, it would make sense that they go to Hell, since this is the “default” destination of all human beings because of the sin of Adam and Eve - before they sinned, our default destination was Paradise, because Adam and Eve were both born into a relationship with God - you don’t have to be a sinner to go to Hell; all you have to be is, not in a relationship with Jesus and His Church. Original Sin refers to the fact that when we are born, we are not yet in a relationship with God, because Adam and Eve broke that initial relationship by their disobedience in the Garden of Eden. When we are baptized, that relationship with God, which had been broken by the sins of our first parents, is restored.

On the other hand, Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children, so perhaps there is some means of cleansing them from Original Sin and restoring them to a relationship with God when they die that we are simply not aware of. We can hope that this is the case, but we have no documentation or tradition that specifically indicates this - we simply don’t know. If so, then of course they would go directly to Heaven, since they have never developed any bad habits, and they have never committed any personal sin. If they go to Purgatory at all, it would be for a very short time.
 
Look people–Baptism saves–baptism cleanses–children before the age of reason do not committ mortal sin.

Baptized children who die before the age of reason do go straight to heaven. Anyone who says differently Blasphemes the power of Baptism.

They don’t have to be children either. Say it is Easter vigil and a convert to the Catholic church is baptized and immediately the next instant a deranged person comes in the church shooting and kills the person who has just been baptized.

That person would go straight to heaven! Why? Becasue No temporal debt has been accumulated because ALL temporal debt is washed away with Baptism.

Now after Baptism temporal debt can accumulate but All of it is Cancelled with Baptism.

Now even though I can say that we don’t know for sure where Unbaptized children go–we can say where the Baptized go that don’t ever accumulate temporal punishment because of sin.

They go to heaven! If they don’t then the Catholic Faith would be as Depraved as the Protestant faith where Martin Luther said that we waltz into Heaven like dung Covered only by Christ’s righteousness.

Baptism does much more than Cover. It completely cleanses! If it didn’t then a person wouldn’t be truely born again!

And for all you Protestants out there and all Catholics out there who also don’t know–All Catholics whether by Baptism of blood, water, or desire are truely born Again!

True Catholics are born again Catholics!
 
1ke said:
Please provide the Church teaching that confirms your assertion. The Catechism reference above clearly indicates this is not the case. So, what is your source of information?
Click to expand...
You have misunderstood Jerry-Jet’s statement–he is talking about children who die after being baptised:

“Children who die after being baptized and before the age of reason…”
 
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