ASK FR. BITAJU | KAIROS GLOBAL | FEBRUARY 2019

Author: Fr. Bitaju

Q. 13   Why do Catholics receive baptism before they are adults?

Shilpa Shaurya Michael, Brisbane, Australia

Peter, the Apostle, explained what happens at baptism when he said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38).  But he did not restrict this teaching to adults.  He added, "For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." (2:39). These commands are universal, not restricted to adults. Further, these commands make clear the necessary connection between baptism and salvation: "Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 3:21). Moreover, Jesus asserted such even for children: "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:14). 

One might ask, does the Bible ever say that infants or young children can be baptized?  In the New Testament we read that Lydia was converted by Paul’s preaching and that "she was baptized, with her household" (Acts 16:15). The Philippian jailer whom Paul and Silas had converted to the faith was baptized that night along with his household. We are told that "the same hour of the night . . . he was baptized, with all his family" (Acts 16:33).  In all these cases, whole households or families were baptized. This means more than just the spouse; the children were included as well.

We do not know the exact age of the children; certainly, there were children younger than the age of reason in some of the households that were baptized, especially if one considers that society at this time had no reliable form of birth control. Furthermore, given the New Testament pattern of household baptism, if there were to be exceptions to this rule (such as infants), they would be explicit. 

The Catholic teaching and practice accord perfectly with early Christian practices. For instance, Origen, one of the early Christian writers, wrote in the third century [A.D. 244] that "according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants" (Homilies on Leviticus, 8:3:11). Later, St. Augustine taught, "The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned . . . nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything except apostolic" (Literal Interpretation of Genesis 10:23:39 [A.D. 408]). 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us the most important reasons why we must baptize infants: 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. 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 (CCC 1250).