Ask a Priest - baptism

What happens to good people who die without being baptized?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The Lord Himself affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands His disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament” (no. 1257).

As a general rule, then, a person who is not baptized (and thus not incorporated into the Church) cannot go to Heaven (see John 3:3-5). Yet, in the words of the Catechism quoted above, there is an implied exception for “those to whom the Gospel has [not] been proclaimed.”

This does not mean a person can be saved without Christ and the Church, nor does it deny the necessity of baptism. Rather, it means it is sometimes possible to receive the grace of baptism – that is, the justification of the sinner – without receiving the sacrament. In all cases, however, some form of faith is required.

The Church has always taught that if a catechumen – one who is preparing to be baptized – dies before receiving the sacrament, he or she is saved by faith and by the explicit desire (in Latin, votum) to receive it. Traditional theology also allows that, under certain conditions, an implicit votum may be sufficient for salvation. This would apply to the righteous of the Old Testament who, if they had known the Christian faith, would have been baptized, and to people who, during and after the time of Christ, were not reached by the Gospel and thus were never given an opportunity to ask for baptism. Such people, however, must use their intellect to seek the truth and the good and follow their correctly formed conscience.

The Second Vatican Council, in the Lumen Gentium (no. 16), affirmed that Heaven is attainable to people “who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.”

Unfortunately, these teachings do not address the fate of babies who die without baptism, since the theology of the votum cannot apply to those who have not reached the age of discretion. Based on Scripture, apostolic tradition and the magisterium, we cannot state for certain that these babies go to Heaven. Absent any clear understanding of Divine Revelation on the topic, we have no definitive answer for this highly emotional question, but we can have hope. As the Catechism (no. 1283) says: “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.”

Christ sent His Apostles to preach the Gospel, make disciples (i.e., to convert people) and baptize them (see Matthew 28:19-20); and baptism remains the only ordinary means by which we can be confident that a virtuous person will make it to Heaven.

Fr. Mauro Gagliardi 
Professor of Theology, Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Rome
Scholar in Residence 2018-2019, St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers

Read the full issue of Archways Fall 2019 here!