Fate of baptized children who die (before sinning)?

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Madia:
Is it correct to say that all baptized children who died before commiting a sin are in heaven?
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No, it is not correct to presume that they are in Heaven. The Church teaches that we may hope that they are but that it cannot be said for certain.
 
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springbreeze:
Dear friend

I know they go to heaven because the only thing that seperates children from God is the will to sin against God and these children have no will to sin. You may say they have original sin, but what God do we believe in to be love to stop children who have no opportunity to be baptised from being in heaven though at their age they know no evil. This is a ridiculous point and a mute point. They go to heaven, to suggest otherwise is not merciful and if it is not merciful it is not of God and such a child has no help but God and if God is no help to such a child then dear friends all of us who are capable of sin and are sinners are in dire straits and the God who gives self is no help to us either, this is ridiculous to contemplate and I cannot buy into children who die before consciously being able to sin go to hell because they were not old enough to be baptised nor their parents desired it for them, it makes every aborted child, a child in hell and I cannot, for one, accept that. They go to heaven, period.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
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"I know they go to heaven because… " The only way to finish this is “because God told me so!” Othersise you would not know for certain.

Free will is not something every human is given, the Churches doctrine on the necessity of Baptism is in error, therefore the infalible teaching authority of the Church has failed, but everyone is saved in the end anyway, so no big deal!

Ok, I’m glad we settled that.
 
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VociMike:
Except that the question was about baptised babies. 😉
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Oh, yeah I guess it was. Sorry! I must have been thinking of other stuff. My bad.

I don’t see why baptized children would not go to heaven. They’ve been baptized and haven’t commited sin, so…why not? I have to say personally I believe that God would take them right into heaven but I understand the church not being able to make a final decision on that. So I guess there is no real official teaching then.
 
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VociMike:
Except that the question was about baptised babies. 😉
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Your correct. I misread the original post.

Yes it IS correct to say that infants who die after Baptism, before the age of reason are in Heaven. They die in a state of perfect Sanctifying Grace.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
No, it is not correct to presume that they are in Heaven. The Church teaches that we may hope that they are but that it cannot be said for certain.
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Correction!

Yes, it IS correct to say that infants who die after Baptism, before the age of reason are in Heaven. They die in a state of perfect Sanctifying Grace.

I misread the original post.
 
I had the privilege to be constantly with a 5 year old child of a client of mine during the 9 months of his dying and death. His mother asked me to have him baptized before he died, even though the family did not go to any church and were not Catholic. I asked a Catholic priest to go with me to Matteo’s home and baptize him. (One of my priest friends refused, saying I could do it myself. I took umbrage with that, considering I live in a city where there are many, many priests, so found no valid reason that I, a lay person should do this.) If it hadn’t been so very sad, it would have been comical in a way. We arrived to enter a smoke-filled house (which I knew would be the case because the parents smoked incessantly), the parents were yelling and swearing before they answered the door, Matteo’s little 3 year old brother was running around, basically out of control, the container Father used for the Holy Water was an everyday Tupperware one (which seemed so fitting to me). Amid all the chaos, Father was exceedingly patient and kind with all of them. It was not long after his baptism that Matteo died but not before he told his mother that God had come to visit him, to tell him he did not need to be afraid because He was His friend and He would always be with him. Matteo taught us all about God’s infinite love. Without a single doubt in my mind, I know that, when he died, Matteo went straight to God’s loving arms to be there with Him for all of eternity. That poor child did not have the wherewithal to sin after he was baptized (nor did he before he was baptized, for that matter…). The suffering he endured during those 9 months was worse than excruciating and must have been Matteo’s sacrifice for someone in Purgatory. (There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation…why would an innocent child be made to suffer otherwise?) He bore it all with great courage. In his death, he has become what I consider my own personal saint. I have great hope that, because I helped him get to heaven by having him baptized, he will help me gain heaven, too.
 
Pianoplayingmom, I think Matteo owes you a great debt, and I’d bet he’s offering up prayers for you even as we speak (er, type).

Thanks for a great lesson, and may God Bless you! He’s awesome, isn’t He?

Notworthy
 
Br. Rich SFO:
Free will is not something every human is given, the Churches doctrine on the necessity of Baptism is in error, therefore the infalible teaching authority of the Church has failed, but everyone is saved in the end anyway, so no big deal!
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Br. Rich, I am confused… are you promoting this as the truth, or is this sarcasm?.. (or something else!? 😃 )
 
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NotWorthy:
Pianoplayingmom, I think Matteo owes you a great debt, and I’d bet he’s offering up prayers for you even as we speak (er, type).

Thanks for a great lesson, and may God Bless you! He’s awesome, isn’t He?

Notworthy
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You’re welcome, Notworthy, and I believe you are correct about Matteo offering up prayers for me. I ask him all the time to pray for me. I love him so. I got to wondering one day if there are very many people who have their own personal saint in heaven the way I do. I am very blessed.
 
i guess this is already been said but i didnt know if everyone realizes its directly from the catechism
“as regards children who die 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 towards 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” (ccc 1261)
one reason i think this scenario gives us hope is b/c of the love which we see that Jesus bears for these unbaptized children. and not just a love as he loves us all but a love that would not permit them from being kept from him. we are bound by the sacrament of baptism in its ritual form but God is not. He can dispense is grace which flows from his passion and ressurection in anway he pleases. this is not to be confused with relativism however.

so as c.s. lewis might put it theres the deep magic and then deeper magic but then maybe the deeper magic goes even deeper
 
but i guess this topic was really about baptized children but all the same i wanted to say that
 
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frogman80:
Br. Rich, I am confused… are you promoting this as the truth, or is this sarcasm?.. (or something else!? 😃 )
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I was kind of in a strange mood last night and would not have posted something like that normally. It was sarcasm. But I do see more and more Catholics holding ideas like this.
 
My son was baptized by the hospital chaplain while I still was on the delivery table. There was nothing I could do for him on earth that a mother would normally do for her child. I never fed him, bathed him, changed him, …but I did what was necessary for his eternal life. I called for the priest and had him baptized. He died an hour later, and I KNOW he is in Heaven waitng for me.

Arlene
 
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