Baby died in womb

Baby died in womb
Question from SEE on 5/5/2008:

I had a child die while I was 5 months pregnant. I found out the baby had died when I went for an ultra-sound. I had a c-section to deliver the baby, and we had him cremated. The ashes are still with us and we plan on burying him with whomever dies first (me or my husband). However, it has deeply pained me to hear that my baby is not in heaven because he was never baptized. He died before he was ever born, and our priest knew that I was in the hospital to deliver him, but no one suggested that I should have him baptized. What should I do? Why would God deny heaven to my little baby? Did God create him just send him to hell? God can not be an unjust God, and yet condemning a baby to hell when there was no possible way to baptize him before he died seems unjust.
Answer by David Gregson on 5/16/2008:

Since your baby was already dead when he was delivered, he couldn't be baptized. But you can be confident of this, your baby isn't in hell. The question is whether he's in heaven. You've probably heard of limbo, a sort of Garden of Eden, without the supreme happiness of seeing God. Although the Church never defined it as dogma, limbo was the common answer, until a few years ago, to the question of where unbaptized babies go.

But since the Church never formally taught limbo as a truth of the Faith, many theologians in recent years have put forward the hope that unbaptized babies go to heaven. Although every baby is conceived in original sin, and God established Baptism as the remedy, He can go beyond what He has established. He may consider that babies who have died in the womb, or have died before they reached the age of reason, have committed no sins of their own. So there is hope for unbaptized babies. This hope is reflected in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 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,' allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism."

You may consider asking your priest to do a funeral service for the child, or at least have a Mass said for him. You may also pray for the soul of your child, that he may be admitted into God's kingdom.

5 comments:

  1. God looks at what is in people's hearts, not whether they have been baptized...Why would God deny your baby heaven? He wouldn't, not the God that I know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. whether your child is in hell or heaven, that all depends on where you beleive you child is right now. Just because he wasn't baptized, that doesn't mean he is not in heaven, he might just be right by you and your husband and await for one of you to lead the way....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your baby is far more special than one that has been born and baptised... He has done no wrong, hurt no one. Never been angry or upset.

    Your baby is something far more special now than you could imagine, as God uses these sad circumstances to create a being so pure and powerfull it is above all who have lived and gone to heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My baby (I've called John) died hours before he could be delivered. A priest then wanted to baptize him but I said NO because the baby had done no wrong and I believed he was with God his Father. I have never regretted that decision and it was in 1972. Since then we had two boys. The younger boy has chosen to take John as his second name.

    ReplyDelete
  5. please go to audio sancto listen to the sermon on limbo the dogma has never been changed!!! I have 2 children in limbo and 10 on earth and one in the womb. Spent 20 years in front of Abortion clinics and I believe the church is correct nothing takes away original sin but baptism. It is notttt hell but they are denied the beatific vision. jennifer Mccoy jennmccoy72@gmail

    ReplyDelete