Posted on 06/06/2015 7:48:08 AM PDT by Salvation
Souls of Aborted Children
Msgr. Charles Pope The Catholic Answer
Q. What does the Church teach about the souls of aborted children and those unborn children who die as a result of miscarriages? They have souls, right? Should they all receive funerals? Should parents name their miscarried children? Name withheld by request, via e-mail
A. “Should” is a word that is too strong here. Parents may both name and have funeral services for miscarried or aborted children. But they are not required to do this, and each case will be unique. How far along the child was is often a factor. In some cases there are remains that can be buried, in other cases not. If there are no remains that have been collected for burial, a memorial Mass may be celebrated. The Sacramentary contains prayers for children who die before baptism and these may be used along with other prayers from the Rite of Christian Burial. Yet another possibility is that one of the general parish Masses can be offered in memoriam.
Yes, children who die before birth and baptism have souls. While there is no definitive teaching by the Lord or the Church as to what happens to their souls if they die before baptism, it is clear that they did not merit hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say: “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. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism” (No. 1261).
Further, the International Theological Commission, at the request of Pope Benedict XVI, studied the question of infants who die without baptism. It issued a lengthy report (“The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized,” 2007) and concluded as to what the Church can say with these words: “What has been revealed to us is that the ordinary way of salvation is by the Sacrament of Baptism. None of the above considerations should be taken as qualifying the necessity of baptism or justifying delay in administering the sacrament.
Rather, as we want to reaffirm in conclusion, they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the Church” (No. 103).
Please re-read the posts to this thread.
That's why I said:
If not Heaven, at least not Hell.
Reading comprehension.
This may some insight as to why you didn't think other posters were saying unborn babies go to Hell.
I was reponding to this post:
“The following seems to suggest that aborted children go to heaven over limbo, however the word, heaven is not stated.”
Talk about reading comprehension! Sheesh!
Poor, hasty research on my part.
Good catch on yours.
I suppose I could still argue higher than 20% as that is for recognized pregnancies, and there is no way of guessing how many unrecognized ones spontaneously end, but ya know what? I'm already in a hole.
I think I'll stop digging...
I’ve reread the posts on this thread twice now. No one has said unborn babies go to Hell. You were wrong.
I think you are using the word “born” too literally.
I was told that this is no longer Catholic teaching.
Enlighten me.
since when do dreams define theology? The God I believe in is merciful to all, and Jesus died for the unborn as well. Those precious little ones are safe in the arms of their Savior, washed by His blood. An adult if they become a believer and die before they can be baptized, similarly goes to Heaven to be with their Savior. Baptism is an important sacrament and an outward sign of obedience, but the change in the heart is what is important.
What puzzles me is why some would define their absolute belief based on someone else’s dream. Argue from scripture or your knowledge of God, but someone else’s dream? please
I also had a dream with aborted children. I had been praying for someone who was distressed and needed help, and the dream was of a playroom and all these little girls were playing and dancing around and were very happy. They were aborted souls, and they told me they were helping the person I was praying for. Then they ran and danced and skipped off to have more good times.
It was only a dream, but very comforting anyway.
You mean islam’s sole claim on Jerusalem, mohammad’s midnight dream of riding his flying horse named barack, to the Temple Mount isn’t valid?
Ooooo, that’s going to annoy a whole buncha muslims!
I think we are conceived in sin, except possibly for the most religious among us who are simply obeying what they perceive as the word of God with no other motive.
Certainly we are born into a sinful world, our parents not excluded, but I don’t think there is a clear demarcation between a born and an unborn soul as there is between conceived in sin because of our sinful culture and nature and conceived without sin, as with Mary, and others of course.
Traditional teaching—as laid out in the Baltimore Catechism — was highly influenced by St. Augustine. Limbo is a concept that stops short of the logical conclusion of Augustine’s system of grace and consigns all the non-baptized to hell. At the same time we used to celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents who were slaughtered by Herod in Bethlehem, a slaughter from which Our Lord escaped. Further, we now accept the Immaculate conception, which was pronounced by Pius IX as dogma at almost the very same time that science discovered that our lives’ courses begin at conception with the uniting of sperm and ovum. Given that this dogma was first advocated in the 15th century, at a time when science still held to the doctrine of the quickening, the coincidence seems to me to be an act of divine providence. The modern slaughter of the unborn has persuaded me, for one that that quote in the Baltimore Catechism is a claim to a knowledge we do not have. Still, I think we let the slaughterers off too lightly by leaving the matter to the mercy of God. “I tremble for my country when I know that God is just.
Thanks.
You may have had a Vision. That is a lot different than a dream.
I was taught there are different forms of baptism. First is by water the most common. Second is by blood (Martyrdom)and abortion IS Martyrdom. Third is by desire, you want to be baptized but die before you can be.
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