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The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”Well, when I was a child, I thought you got to heaven by just being a nice person. My parents never took me to church, and the closest “Sunday school education” I received was from old Bible cartoons produced by the same animation company that made The Flintstones. I thought they …

When it comes to the practice of baptism, questions arise as to who can receive it. At first glance, such questions might seem a bit pedantic, something only for theological nerds. But as we’ll see, these questions are at the heart of many of the conversations that we Catholics have about baptism, whether we’re talking to Catholics or Protestants. So let’s take a look at a few special cases that come up more frequently than others. Can We Baptize Infants in the Womb? What abou …

The Catholic Church teaches what we must believe in order to be saved.After college, I traveled the country with a pro-life organization whose staff were evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants. This made for interesting conversations around the trays of lasagna we ate in the evenings. (If you’ve ever had to feed thirty missionaries, you understand the utility of lasagna.)One night, we were having a slightly technical discussion about specific topics related to salvation—li …

What if someone has an active intention to receive baptism and yet still chooses to persist in or cling to a sin?Can such a person be baptized? The answer depends on what we mean by “can.” If by “can” we mean, “Will the person be validly baptized?”, then the answer is yes. Aquinas teaches that such a baptism would be valid insofar as it communicates the “seal” or “indelible mark” mentioned in previous chapters (cf. CCC 1 …

Grandparents often find themselves wondering if they are permitted to baptize their grandchild when his parent doesn’t want him baptized. And not just grandparents, but also caring individuals. I’ve had folks ask me this question countless times. It demands a thorough response. Let’s start with what we shouldn’t do: baptize the child in secret. The Code of Canon Law (CIC) states that “for an infant to be baptized licitly . . . the pare …