Pope Pius XII Allocution to Midwives:
In the present economy there is no other way to communicate that life to the child who has not attained the use of reason. Above all, the state of grace is absolutely necessary at the moment of death without it salvation and supernatural happiness—the beatific vision of God—are impossible.
The Catechism (CCC 1257) does not deny that baptism is the only known means of salvation in this world. The Church preaches that baptism is the only known means and thus declares that it is an “urgent” matter to baptize infants (CCC 1261). However, as St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa III, Q68, A2) wrote, God “is not tied to visible sacraments.” God can surely choose other means of salvation for infants who die before baptism. The Church’s teaching and Pope Pius XII’s statement are in perfect harmony. The Church does not declare to know what happens to infants who die before baptism, She only expressed “hope.”
Pope Sixtus V’s Papal Bull
Effraenatam is a condemnation of abortion and sterilization. It makes mention that abortion prevents a child from the vision of God. However, that is one of the underlying arguments in the Bull against abortion and not a teaching of the Bull. Secondly, as noted previously, the Catechism does not guarantee salvation for unbaptized infants and reaffirms that there is only one known path (the sacraments).
Lastly, a Papal Bull is not inherently a teaching document, they are disciplinary documents. Its purpose was to impose ecclesiastical penalties on those who procure abortions or sterilization. It had no intention of teaching anything on the theology of baptism. In fact, three years later Pope Gregory XIV limited the scope of actions laid out that lead to excommunication and then later on his successor re-established the original set of actions that lead to excommunication. This is clearly a disciplinary document that had no intention of settling theological debate, which continues on in the present day.
Canon 110 of the Council of Carthage:
[Also it seemed good, that if anyone should say that the saying of the Lord, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” is to be understood as meaning that in the kingdom of heaven there will be a certain middle place, or some place somewhere, in which infants live in happiness who have gone forth from this life without baptism, without which they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, which is eternal life, let him be anathema. For after our Lord has said: “Except a man be born again of water and of the Holy Spirit he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven,” what Catholic can doubt that he who has not merited to be coheir with Christ shall become a sharer with the devil: for he who fails of the right hand without doubt shall receive the left hand portion.]
The problem with this section is that it is not a definitive canon of the Council of Carthage. As virtually every copy of the canons that includes this section also make note: “[This part], says Surius, is found in this place in a very ancient codex. It does not occur in the Greek, nor in Dionysius. Bruns relegates it to a foot-note.”
The fact that the matter continued to be debated for centuries afterwards shows that this section was never considered part of the dogmatic canons of the Council.
