heaven is a place to which none of us has any
inherent right or natural claim, but that it is promised to us by the pure
favor of God. He can reject and adopt whom He pleases, and can, without
injustice, prescribe His own conditions for accepting His proffered boon.
If your child is deprived of heaven by being deprived of Baptism, God does
it no wrong because He infringes no right to which your child had any
inalienable title. If your child obtains the grace of Baptism be thankful
for the gift.

It is proper here to state briefly what the Church actually teaches
regarding the future state of unbaptized infants. Though the Church, in
obedience to God's Word, declares that unbaptized infants are excluded
from the kingdom of heaven, it should not hence be concluded that they are
consigned to the place of the reprobate. None are condemned to the
torments of the damned but such as merit Divine vengeance by their
personal sins.

All that the Church holds on this point is that unregenerate children are
deprived of the beatific vision, or the possession of God, which
constitutes the essential happiness of the blessed.

Now, between the supreme bliss of heaven and the torments of the
reprobate, there is a very wide margin.

All admit that the condition of unbaptized infants is better than
non-existence. There are some Catholic writers of distinction who even
assert that unbaptized infants enjoy a certain degree of natural
beatitude--that is, a happiness which is based on the natural knowledge and
love of God.

From what has been said you may well judge how reprehensible is the
conduct of Catholic parents who neglect to have their children baptized at
the earliest possible moment, thereby risking their own souls, as well as
the souls of their innocent offspring. How different was the practice of
the early Christians, who, as St. Augustine testifies, hastened with their
new-born babes to the baptismal font that they might not be deprived of
the grace of regeneration.

If an infant is sick, no expense is spared that its life may be preserved.
The physician is called in, medicine is given to it, and the mother will
spend sleepless nights watching every movement of the infant; she will
sacrifice her repose, her health; nay, she will expose even her own life
that the life of her offspring may be saved. And yet the supernatural
happiness of the child is too often imperiled without remorse by the
criminal postponement of Baptism