Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1901-03-07
A Catholic View Of the Future of Unbap
tiZed Children.

The Archbishop of Melbourne, in the
New Zealand Tablet Condensed for Pub
lie Opinion.
All Catholic theologians are agreed
Q)that infants who die without baptism
are excluded from the kingdom of heav-
en-; ~ that they will not enjoy the be-
attic vision outside heaven; (3)that in
common with adults they will arise and
be assembled for judgment ON the last
day; and az that after the last day there
will be but two states-namely, a state
| of supernatural and supreme felicity and
state of what may be called in a wide
sense state of damnation. The whole
question therefore resolves itself into
| this: In what does that latter state con-
sist in case of unbaptized infants?
Damnation is a state of existence adj
hitting of many degrees differing widely
from one another. Q)Its most deplor-
able form is found in the condition of
the reprobate, who in the prison of hell,
together with the positive pain of loss,
will suffer also positive pains of mind
and body-the worm that never dies, and
the fire that is never extinguished ~
1t may consist in the positive pain of loss
alone-that is, in the consciousness of
having lost God the supreme good, but
without any pain of sense. (3)It may be
limited to a negative pain of loss, i. e., a
deprivation of the beatific vision without
any consciousness of the loss sustained.
| (4Finally it might, with this negative
pain of loss, include large measure of
natural happiness, including a natural
knowledge and love of God.
| No one has ever maintained that I'M
baptized infants suffer the same punish
ment as the reprobate. We believe with
all confidence that these children suffer
no pain of sense. But are they also ex-
empt from the pain of loss? Do they
know and grieve for the infinite happi-
ness they have lost in being excluded
from the sight of God and the kingdom
of His glory? Some have held that as
these infants will be present at the general
Judgment, they must know, and know
ing must grieve for the glorious inheri-
| lance they have lost But the weight of
authority is certainly on the other side.
1t is much more commonly held that
even if they know that others are hap
pier than themselves, they are perfectly
resigned to Gods will, and suffer no pain
of loss in regard to happiness which is
not suited to their condition. But
Catholic theologians go further, and
maintain on solid grounds that these I'M
baptized infants, besides being exempt
from all pain of sense and loss, enjoy all
the natural happiness, including nat
,,ural knowledge and love of God, which
is suitable to their state.
Some imagine that this natural happi-
ness will be enjoyed on this earth after it
has been purified by fire and prepared
for the habitation of the unbaptized in
fants. In several parts of the New Testa-
ment, as in the Epistles of ST. Paul to the
Romans, it appears to be clearly signi-
fed, az that the present condition of the
world was not that originally intended
by the Almighty; " that the world itself
was not the cause or occasion of the I'M
favorable change to which it was sub
ljected; (3) that the visible creation ex-
Ipects, as it were, glorious change and
''groaneth and travaileth in pain till it
be accomplished; and az that as the fall
of man subjected the visible creation to
corruption, so the final glory of the
blessed will be reflected in the world
which was created for mans use and en-
joyment. Surprising, then, that this
world should undergo such a glorious
renovation, it is reasonable to conclude
that it will still be used for the use and
benefit of such of the children of men as
will neither be reigning in glory with
God in heaven, nor shut up within the
confines of hell.