The Church has pretty much answered the question about Baptism already. I would have assumed you as a Priest know that.
I don’t limit God to anything. But if He wants us to comply with a certain set of rules, which I guess he does, otherwise we would not have them, then I would expect that He expects us to abide by them. If we don’t abide by His rules, then I think it fair to think He might have some sort of issue with that. He has in the past you know. He gave us the sacraments. If we do not use them as He intended that is hardly His fault. We can hope that He overlooks it, but we have no assurance that He will.
Quite true, there have always been extraordinary means for cleansing Original Sin without water Baptism. However how they are applied is not up to us, it is up to God. We were all afforded the opportunity for salvation through the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. However as I understand the Catholic way of seeing this while all CAN be saved** NOT** all will be saved for one reason or another. Some will not merit salvation.
Protestants on the other hand generally don’t believe in Original Sin, so all children are automatically saved and all adults will be saved, once they have accepted Christ…
And like it or not, that seems to be the idea that is floating around this particular thread.
Assuming that someone, anyone WILL be saved is indeed presuming upon God’s mercy. When you say that you know someone is in heaven, except as defined by the Church you are making that presumption. In effect you are setting yourself up as the Judge.
Not a position I would like to be in.
Nevertheless, we do know the nature of God’s laws. We, as parents, make rules for our children. We don’t make them for the sake of making rules. We make our rules, rather, for the welfare of the children.
We do not let them play in the street, because they might be struck by a car. We insist they eat a balanced diet, because it will strengthen them and keep them healthy. We insist they do their school work, because education develops their abilities as persons. We would be failing them if we didn’t give them these rules, insist they be followed, and allow our children to face the consequences of failing to follow them. The consequences of their failing to follow the rules are natural ones. We can’t keep falls from hurting, pour knowledge into their heads, or force their bodies to grow and thrive without nourishment.
Having said that, when a child is struck by a car, we would gather her up and care for her wounds. When one gets sick, we feed him a bland diet that his stomach can stand, and let vegetables go for a few days. When they have difficulties with school work, we help them catch up, even if their difficulties are due in part to their own neglect of our rules. If their siblings are jealous of the attention, we let them know we are pleased with their efforts to follow the rules, but remind them that they will get the help they need when they are the ones who fall. (Remember the brother of the prodigal son!)
Whether we’ve failed or done our best, when a deed is done we put the results into the hands of God. We ask for forgiveness when we’ve failed, give gratitude for the help we’ve had when we succeed, and always trust that God is more faithful and solicitous for our welfare than we’ll ever be. We hope as much for mercy on others as we do for ourselves.
We can’t know what happens to anyone who dies, except when God lets us know by miracles that the person is a saint, when he wills that person be our special model and advocate. We can know that there will never be a corner open to Mercy where Mercy will not go. In that, we place our hope. We know that we are commanded to cooperate with every act of Mercy that is needed, and so we pray for the dead, console the sorrowing, encourage the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, and so on. We pray for the dead not because God will not care if we don’t, but because God has ordained that our own love and caring counts for something. To intercede for help from heaven is an ability that no other creature has, and so it is our joyful duty.
