YOUCAT Lesson 197
YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth
197 Why does the Church adhere to the
practice of infant baptism?
From antiquity the Church has practiced infant Baptism. There is one reason for this: before we
decide on God, God has decided on us.
Baptism is therefore a grace, and undeserved gift of God, who accepts us
unconditionally. Believing parents who
want what is best for their child want Baptism also, in which the child is
freed from the influence of original sin and the power of death. [1250,
1282]
Photo: ….. A baptistery in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Monza, Italy. …..197
Infant Baptism presupposes that Christian parents will raise
the baptized child in the faith. It is
an injustice to deprive the child of Baptism out of a mistaken liberality. One cannot deprive a child of love so that he
can later decide on love for himself; so too it would be an injustice if
believing parents were to deprive their child of God’s grace in Baptism. Just as every person is born with the ability
to speak yet must learn a language, so too every person is born with the
capacity to believe but must become acquainted with the faith. At any rate, Baptism can never be imposed on
anyone. If someone has received Baptism
as a little child, he must “ratify” it later in life—this means he must say Yes
to it, so that it becomes fruitful.
“The gift received by newborn infants needs to be accepted
by them freely and responsibly once they have reached adulthood: the process of
growing up will then bring them to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, which
precisely strengthens the baptized and confers upon each one the “seal” of the
Holy Spirit.” Pope Benedict XVI, January
8, 2008
…….The
Baptism of infants
…….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.(compare
Council of Trent (1546): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1514; compare Colossians 1:12-14)50
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.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 867; Corpus Canonum
Ecclesiarum Orientalium, cann. 681; 686,)51 –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
…….IN
BRIEF
…….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. --CCC
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