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A Visual Catholic Catechism
 

 

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What happens at baptism?

 

Conversion is a decision. So why does the Catholic Church baptize infants even though they don't understand what it means?

From the Catechism para. 1250:

"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 are called" (Col. 1:12-14). 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.
 

From the Catechism para. 1252:

The practice of infant baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole "households" received baptism, infants may also have been baptized. (See examples in Acts 16:15 & 33, Acts 18:8, 1 Cor. 1:16.)

So, what about the importance of making a personal decision to be Christian???

From the Catechism para. 1231:

By its very nature infant baptism requires a post-baptismal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after baptism, but also for the necessary flowering of baptismal grace in personal growth.

What happens if a person dies unbaptized?

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