Here is the Catholic Church's teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The answer is that if the baby has not been baptized we hope they will go to heaven but do not know what their fate is: 1261 As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,"64 allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism. http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt2sect2.htm#art1 Thus, as with anything dealing with Eternal Salvation, its up to God.
Babies go to Purgatory like the rest of us. They have an express lane to Heaven though b/c it gets loud and stinky in there.
That's interesting. I don't really know much about the teachings of the Catechism. Maybe that'll be my next step in my religious musings.
nothing like sending a newborn child to purgatory to repent their sins. the logic is overwhelming. can you imagine the baby's thoughts while waiting? I get pissed just waiting at the dmv. take a number please. we'll get to your cursed soul when we get to you (given you've filled out the appropriate forms and picked the right line). baby: GD, all this over a fn apple? are you freaking kidding me? couldnt god's will at least let me get to the baptism so I could skip all this bull****?
I imagine babies are closer to unity with God than most adults, kind of in the same way that animals are.
That's a reasonable belief to me. In the Sermon of the Mount (which many think is the cornerstone sermon regarding what Jesus was trying to tell us), you've got Jesus comparing righteous human behavior to the birds in the sky, to wild flowers, to grass in the field. As for babies, children, you've got all three synoptic Gospels agreeing that children were brought to Jesus (and according to Luke, even infants were brought to Jesus), and his own disciples tried to prevent this from happening (I've read that in the culture at the time, this wasn't a big surprise, because at that time, children were considered so inferior that it would be disrespectful to allow them to approach someone like Jesus in this case). Yet, Jesus responded by rebuking his own disciples (in fact, Mark even says that Jesus got "indignant" with his own disciples, like he was a bit upset by their ignorance). Regardless, Jesus tells his disciples to not prevent the children from coming to him, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these. Those are two examples just off the top of my head, but from what I remember, I'm pretty sure that there is a lot in Christianity to indicate that babies and animals are closer to God than adults.
No. Nothing prevents God from receiving an un-baptized child into His kingdom. Such a rigid understanding of scripture is not warranted.
