Answers to Jeff's first two questions

Hi all,

Here's a rushed, off the top of my head (with a little help from the Catechism) response to the first few questions Jeff posed. I am grateful to Jeff for the opportunity to help explain these tough questions, because they are questions that arise in the context of the class I teach at my Church for adults who are preparing to become Catholic. This is helpful training for the class on life issues that I'll give in a couple of weeks.

Jeff: If a mother loses her unborn fetus due to natural circumstances, can that fetus be baptized

No. The fetus is already dead so cannot be baptized, but this doesn’t mean the soul of this child is not with God in heaven. By your question and the one below, I take it that you have an antiquated (and widely held!) idea of the Church’s view of the role of Baptism in salvation, so I’m going to elaborate. The position on the possibility of salvation for all people, whether or not they have had the opportunity to hear the Good News of God coming into the world to save us, was clarified at the Second Vatican Council. I will quote you from the Vat. II documents on this, because I run into people all the time who reject Catholicism based on the injustice of the idea that heaven is closed to people living in remote regions of the Earth who’ve never met a Christian, children who die before Baptism, people like Gandhi, etc. In fact, the Church (at least the Pope and orthodox, informed, humble members) does not presume to know who will be and will not be saved.

The Magisterium (bet you love that word :-) declares:

“Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things, and as Saviour wills that all men be saved. Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life.” Lumen Gentium, 16

In other words, Baptism is the only way we KNOW of to become capable of communing with God in heaven, but God is not limited by the Sacrament of Baptism. God can prepare souls for heaven any way God sees fit. However, this doesn’t suggest a relativistic idea that all paths are equally good or equally directed toward heaven. That is, all Christians must necessarily profess that EVERYONE who is saved is saved through the death and Resurrection of Jesus, whether or not he/she has had the gift of knowing Christ while on this Earth.

Jeff: If so, from which point after conception can that fetus be baptized? Does a fetus have a soul? Is that soul present at conception?

Only a child who is born can be baptized, but see the Catholic Catechism on the possibility of salvation for children who die unbaptized:

“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,"⁶⁴ 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.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1261

To answer the second part of your question: This gets into deep philosophical questions above my pay grade. Hahaha. No, seriously ... Yes, we believe the soul is present from the moment of conception. Or at least, we (along with the scientists) believe human life begins at conception. And, as we are not dualists (who think the soul just lives in a body and is not united with the body), this entails that the soul exists contemporaneously with the body from the moment of fertilization, when a new internally-directed life begins. When I say internally or self-directed, I mean the direction of the embryo’s growth is determined by its active intervention to use the genetic information, i.e. its life.

Some people say the embryo/fetus is some sort of intermediate life form, but they can’t provide an explanation for what causes the fetus to suddenly become a “full human being”, because nothing extrinsic acts on it to turn it from one substance to another. – a beating heart? Emergence from the birth canal? Viability (but ‘viability’ changes with advancements in technology – is the definition of life dependent on modern science?) Capacity for rational thought (but what about disabled people who will never have rational thought or senile people who have lost their mental capacities, as I accused my poor old Dad)?

To me, the only transformation from non-life to human life that makes sense is the Catholic or secular natural law understanding, which holds that there is a continuum of a human life that begins at fertilization: I began when the sperm and egg joined to become a distinct, self-directed organism; the sperm and the egg were merely parts of my parents; I was never a sperm or an egg.

This answer is grossly simplified. I apologize if it is unclear. I am not a philosopher. I just take great interest in studying Church teaching, because I love the Church and I love my faith and I take to heart the command of St. Peter "Always be prepared to give reason for anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is within you." And hope is what I have ! :-)

No time now to answer the other questions, but they are intriguing, and I am happy to continue this discussion.

Love, Monica