Tuesday, June 26, 2012
258. Why does the Church baptize infants?
(Comp
258) The Church baptizes infants because they are born with original sin. They
need to be freed from the power of the Evil One and brought into that realm of
freedom which belongs to the children of God.
“In
brief”
(CCC
1282) Since the
earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace
and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit; children are
baptized in the faith of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to
true freedom.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC
1250) Born with a
fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the
new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into
the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called
(Cf. Council of Trent (1546): DS 1514; cf. Col 1:12-14). The sheer
gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant
Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of
becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth
(Cf. CIC, can. 867; CCEO, cann. 681; 686, 1).
(CCC 403)
Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery
which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be
understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has
transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is
the "death of the soul" (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1512). Because of
this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even
tiny infants who have not committed personal sin (Cf. Council of Trent: DS
1514). (CCC 1251) Christian parents will
recognize that this practice also accords with their role as nurturers of the
life that God has entrusted to them (Cf. LG 11; 41; GS 48; CIC, can. 868). (CCC 1252) The practice of infant Baptism is an
immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this
practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the
beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole "households"
received baptism, infants may also have been baptized (Cf. Acts 16:15, 33;
18:8; 1 Cor 1:16; CDF, instruction, Pastoralis actio: AAS 72 (1980) 1137-1156). (CCC 1283) With respect to children who have died
without Baptism, the liturgy of the Church invites us to trust in God's mercy
and to pray for their salvation.
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