Jesus calls everyone to be saved and since the stain of Original Sin can only be removed through Baptism, the Catholic Church recommends that Baptism take place as soon as possible after a baby is born.
Although babies have no personal sin, they have still inherited the Original Sin of Adam and Eve and have none of the sanctifying grace that is necessary to go to Heaven.
A baptized baby begins a new life in Christ just as an adult does, becoming a child of God the Father and receiving the Holy Spirit into their heart.
Faithful Catholic parents give consent for their children to be baptized. In and through the grace received in their Baptism, the children receive the gift of faith.
Christian Baptism replaces the circumcision of the Jews, the sign of the family covenant of God. Circumcision took place when a male baby was only 8 days old. The Apostles included babies and young children among the whole households of people that they baptized.
As a child matures and is educated in the Catholic Church, their faith continues to grow and to be nurtured by the grace of the other sacraments.
God’s grace is not limited to man’s understanding:
Baptism saves unconditionally and absolutely:
We acknowledge as believers one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Baptism should be conferred even on infants who are yet unable to commit any sin personally, in order that, having been born without supernatural grace, they may be born again of water and the Holy Spirit to divine life in Christ Jesus.
Pope Paul VI, Sollemnis Professio Fidei, 30 June 1968
Delaying Baptism delays the gift of God’s grace:
Children should grow up with God’s grace:
Trusting the Holy Spirit to guide the child:
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.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1250
Receiving the gift of faith:
Receiving a gift that washes away Original Sin:
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew [his] sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here. ”He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.” So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once.
Acts 16: 27-33
Baptism is the circumcision of Christ:
The Apostles baptized families:
Whole households were Baptized in the Bible:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Young Catholic adults of Nairobi:
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