WHAT HAPPENS TO UNBAPTISED BABIES

Traditional Roman Catholicism

In the world today, a large number of people including infants, have never received the waters of baptism. In the new Catechism # 1261, it states: " hope that there is a way of salvation for children who die without baptism". This is a total rejection of the doctrine on original sin.

The Pelagian heresy was and is condemned by the Church. This heresy rejects original sin and thus denied that it was transmitted to infants. Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church, states:

" Likewise, whosoever says that those children who depart out of this life without partaking of that sacrament (Baptism) shall be made alive in Christ, certainly contradicts the apostolic declaration, and condemns the  universal church, in which it is the practice to loose no time and run in haste to administer baptism to infant children, because it is believed, as an indubitable truth, that otherwise they cannot be made alive, must  necessarily remain under the condemnation, of which the apostle says, " by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation."

Letter 166: To Saint Jerome.

We must remember that it is heresy to say an unbaptized baby can be saved. In the doctrine on original sin, the Council of Florence declared: " The souls of those who die in actual mortal sin, or only in original sin, immediately  descend into hell." ( Denzinger # 693 )


The Council of Lyons II states:

" The souls of those who die in mortal sin, or with original sin only, however, immediately descend to hell, yet to  be punished with different punishments." (Denzinger # 464)


The Catechism of the Council of Trent, under Pope Saint Pius V states:

" If then through the transgression of Adam, children inherit original sin, with still stronger reason can they attain through Christ our Lord grace and justice that they may reign in life. This however, cannot be effected otherwise than through baptism. Pastors therefore should inculate the absolute necessity of administering baptism to infants, and of gradually forming their minds to piety by education in the Christian religion..... The faithful are earnestly to be exhorted to take care that their children be brought to the Church , as soon as it can be done with safety, to receive solemn baptism. Since infant children have no other means of salvation except baptism, we may easily understand how grievously those persons sin who permit them to remain without the grace of the  sacrament longer than necessity may require, particularly at an age so tender as to be exposed to numberless dangers of death."

So we see that those who die in "original sin only', which would be infants, descend immediately into hell. The limbo of unbaptized children is situated in hell. Although the punishments of hell are not the same as for those who commit actual sin. Pope John XXII (1316-1134) wrote :

" It ( the Roman Church) teaches.... that the souls...of those who die in mortal sin, or with only original sin descend immediately into hell; however, to be punished with different penalties and in different places."  ( Denzinger # 493a ).

Different punishments and different places of hell. Knowing this, why would anyone not rush to have their infants baptized? Even if the infant suffers no actual pain, again, why would anyone take the chance to have their infant be deprived of the Beatific Vision? To show another example of the belief in different places of hell we see:

" The wretched souls of the damned are distributed throughout places of punishment according to the nature of their sins, fearfully or less fearfully, as it is written: "Each one is bound fast by the ropes of his own sins(Proverbs 5:22) , and this is what is meant by the servant who is beaten with few stripes"(Luke12:48). For just as there are differences , so there are differences of punishments."

Saint Ephraim of Syrius (A.D. 372), doctor of the church. Sermon 72

Limbo, which in Latin is, "limbus", means edge. According to " A Catholic dictionary", "The limbo of children. It is of faith that all, children and adults, who leave this world without baptism of water, blood or desire, and therefore are in original sin are excluded from the vision of God in Heaven.

One last quote:

" The doctrine which rejects as a Pelagian fable, that place of the lower regions ( which the faithful generally designate by the name of the limbo of the children ) in which the souls of those departing with the sole guilt of original sin are punished with the punishment of the condemned, exclusive of the punishment of fire, just as if, by this vary fact, that these who remove the punishment of fire introduced that middle place and state free of guilt and of punishment between the kingdom of God and eternal damnation, such as that about which the Pelagians  idly talk , - false, rash, injurious to Catholic schools."

Pope Pius VI ( Denzinger # 1526 )

So we see the church officially teaches that all children, who do not receive the waters of baptism, cannot be in the Beatific vision, although they do not suffer the pains of hell, they are punished by the loss of the Beatific Vision. We must ask why the New Catechism contradicts the strict teaching on the necessity of baptism for salvation of infants. God has spoken in the Gospels, the Church has clearly taught the need for baptism of infants, yet the New Catechism somehow gives hope for those never baptized. This is a Pelagian heresy to say that there is hope. A rejection of the doctrine on original sin. The babies who die in abortion cannot and will not see God. This is an article of faith. They will not suffer the fire, but the fact that God created them to be with Him in heaven, should be enough for women not to take them away from God. Water Baptism is and always has been, the entrance to The Church, The Mystical Body of Christ and outside the Church, no one can be saved, not even babies. Please, make sure your child is baptized so that he or she can have the opportunity to go home to Heaven when God calls them. I end this with a quote from Saint Ambrose:

" No one ascends into the kingdom of Heaven except by the Sacrament of Baptism. No one is excused from Baptism: not infants, nor anyone hindered by any necessity. When the Lord Jesus came to John, and John said: "  I ought to be baptized by Thee, and dost Thou come to me? " Jesus said: " Permit it to be so for now. For thus it becometh us to fulfill all justice."

( Mt. 3: 14-15 ) Behold how all justice rests on Baptism! "

Saint Ambrose