Church Teachings on Miscarriage & Infant Loss

Is My Baby in Heaven?

For all of Christian history, the Church has grappled with the question of the fate of the eternal souls of children lost through miscarriage or in infancy. In some cases, the question is easier to answer than in others. In order to properly orient ourselves and engage with this question, several core teachings of the Catholic Faith should be discussed.

First Principles

Every human soul comes into being at the moment of conception. Every child in the womb is fully human, body and soul together. Because of the fallen nature of the human race, every human being brought into existence carries original sin. Even an infant, in the womb or newly born, although not capable of committing any particular sin of his or her own, is affected by original sin. Original sin prevents a soul from entering heaven until it is washed away through the sacrament of Baptism. This sacrament, instituted by Christ Himself, is the means by which a soul is “buried with Christ” in His passion and death, and then brought forth, reborn as a child of God able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.[1]

For those children whom we have been able to baptize before death, we can rest assured that their souls have found eternal glory with Christ our savior. However, this leaves us with uncertainty regarding the souls of those children we were unable to baptize. The Church herself has never definitively ruled on this question. As a result, she has allowed theological opinion to develop over the centuries.

The Traditional Catholic Perspective

It has been commonly held and taught that the souls of children who died without baptism cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but at the same time do not share the same fate of the damned in hell. With no explicit clarifications to be found in scripture, early church fathers held a range of views that trended away from the conclusion that unbaptized infants were to be counted among the lost yet stopped short of admitting them to heaven.[2] St. Augustine (354-430 AD) notably deviated from the earlier beliefs, concluding that the problem of original sin necessarily consigned unbaptized infants to hell, but their punishments would be the lightest of all, and that their existence there would be preferable to never existing at all.[3] Catholic thought on this subject reached its maturity in the medieval period notably led by St. Thomas Aquinas, who challenged the more severe view taught by Augustine. During this time the common belief held that children who died without baptism could not enjoy the vision of God in heaven but would undergo no other punishments and even enjoy complete natural happiness. Such souls would reside in the “Limbo of the Infants”, similar to the “Limbo of the Fathers”, the realm in which the just souls of the time before Christ waited in expectation of His coming. 200 years after St. Thomas, strong statements were promulgated by the Council of Florence (1431-49) about infant baptism and original sin which seemed to give ammunition to the harsher Augustinian views.[4] [5] Nonetheless, the prevailing opinion of natural happiness in limbo championed by St. Thomas endured in the common teaching and practice of the church until the mid-20^th century. It remains a valid position to hold. The endorsement of this opinion by the greatest minds of the Church, and its widespread acceptance over many centuries cautions us against rejecting it out of hand simply because it is hard to accept. There are great dangers in downplaying the reality of original sin, the necessity of the sacraments, and the ministry of the Church.

Recent Re-Examinations of the Question

In recent decades, the opinion of “Limbo” has been challenged. Far greater emphasis is placed as of late on hope in God’s unfathomable mercy. While the Church continues to refrain from dogmatically ruling on this question, she has adjusted the common teaching and practice to emphasize our great hope in mercy. She adopted a funeral rite for infants who died without baptism in the 1969 Roman Missal where none existed previously. The Catechism of the Catholic Church released in 1992 states, “As to children who have died without baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites.”[6]

Much of the emphasis on hope in mercy is drawn from the concepts of “baptism of desire”, the omnipotence of God and His will that all men be saved, and the intercessory power of the church. The teaching of “baptism of desire”, written about by St. Thomas Aquinas and confirmed by the Council of Trent affirms that a soul who desires to receive baptism, but is unable to receive it before death, has made a de facto profession of faith sufficient to merit the graces of baptism without the sacrament actually being conferred.[7] [8] For example, a catechumen who dies before baptism would be saved based on his will to receive the sacrament. Theologians have asked in recent years if it is possible for baptism of desire to be applied to those infants who cannot of themselves will baptism. They ask if the desire of the parents and the desire of the church can fill this gap. They present the fact of God’s universal salvific will to ask if any unknown supernatural remedy for original sin may exist. These ideas are discussed at length in the 2007 International Theological Commission document, “The Hope of Salvation for Infants who Die Without Being Baptized”.

Emphasis in recent years is also placed on the truth of God’s omnipotence. We as Catholics indeed hold that while God instituted the sacraments as the indispensable pathways of His grace, He at the same time is not limited by them. In answering a separate and broader question about the administration of the sacraments, St. Thomas Aquinas compellingly argues that “…God did not bind His power to the sacraments, so as to be unable to bestow the sacramental effect without conferring the sacrament.”[9] St. Thomas, although himself a proponent of Limbo, in referring to the ancient Jewish rite of circumcision under the Old Covenant, made a striking observation about the merciful provision of God that we can perhaps keep in mind. He writes, “in every state after sin there was some remedy by which original sin would be taken away by virtue of the Passion of Christ. And again, because no child born could prepare himself for grace before he had the use of his free will, lest he be left without any remedy at all, it was necessary for some remedy to be given which would obliterate sin by the very act having been done.”[10]

Contemporary theologians also highlight the intercessory power of the Church on behalf of all men. The Church Militant, that portion here on Earth, labors through various means including her prayers to draw all men to Christ. The Church Triumphant, the Saints in Heaven, pray continuously before the throne of God for us here in exile. They win graces that are unmerited by us yet are dispensed through the mercy of Our Lord.

Trust and Hope

There are many in the modern Church who would not hesitate to affirm that our un-baptized children are among the Saints in Heaven, telling us what we want to hear out of a super-abundance of pastoral concern, ignorance, or incredulity. There are also those who hold to a hyper-rigorous view that treats Limbo as a solemn dogma. We are permitted to question both sides. Down the ages, Limbo has been understood to be theologically reasonable. Church scholars have made recent provision for the possibility of salvation for un-baptized infants, and the expression of hope therein is also reasonable.

The Holy Catholic Church is the gate to salvation. The sacraments are not optional, and the very words of Christ confirm their necessity. As we hold to these truths, we can yet hold to the bold and daring hope that makes us Christians. For reasons known to Him only, Our Blessed Lord has withheld from us any certainty over this question of un-baptized infants. Perhaps for us who bear this cross, our uncertainty is His invitation to trust in Him.

For further reading on this topic, we recommend the following sources:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraphs 1213-1284.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, “The Sacrament of Baptism”.

International Theological Commission, “The Hope of Salvation for Infants who Die Without Being Baptized”, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html#*

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church (Hereafter CCC), 1250-1257.

[2] Toner, P. (1910). Limbo. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved March 20, 2023 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm

[3] Ibid.

[4] Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Council of Florence Session XI: “As for children, given the danger of death often looming, since they can only be helped by the sacrament of baptism, which frees them from the dominion of the devil and makes them adopted children of God, the Church warns that baptism should not be deferred…”.

[5] Pope Eugene IV, Laetentur Coeli, Council of Florence. In Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, 693.

[6] CCC, 1261.

[7] Trent Session VII, Canons on the Sacraments in General (Canon 4). In Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, 847.

[8] Trent, Decree on Justification (Session 6, Chapter 4), In Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, 796.

[9] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, 64, 7; cf. III, 64, 3; III, 66, 6; III, 68, 2.

[10] Thomas Aquinas, In IV Sent. Dist.1, q. 2, a. 4, q.1, a. 2: “in quolibet statu post peccatum fuit aliquod remedium per quod originale peccatum ex virtute passionis Christi tolleretur”.