I think Bowler may have meant Fr. James Wathen, not Waltham? Here is one thing Fr. Wathen has to say on the subject.
Thank you for the information and the link. I agree wit most of it except for this:
(y) Even though we can judge that our neighbors are failing to fulfill the requirements for salvation, once they have departed this life, it is impossible to know whether they have been saved or lost.
I believe that if we know someone is not baptized before they die it is possible to know that they are not in heaven.
Yes, I believe he was simply making a statement there, he was not saying we do not know where the unbaptized go. . . . . . whereas most BOD supporters will place the sincere unbaptized in heaven as though it is dogma.
and this:
(t) It is the teaching of the Church that God gives to all men sufficient grace for salvation; to those who are saved, He gives efficacious grace.
If it were true that God gives all men sufficient grace for salvation, then this would mean that all the unbaptized infants must be given grace to be saved, but this is not true. The unbaptized infants go to hell through no fault of their own because of original sin.
Other than those two points I like the article.
We do not know that unbaptized infants go to hell. It has been the teaching of the fathers that unbaptized infants go to Limbo.
You have stated a pelagian heresy. The church has in fact said that unbaptized infants go to hell- multiple times in fact.
The Catholic Church infallibly teaches that all infants born into this world (except Jesus and Mary) inherit the guilt of original sin. She also infallibly teaches that original sin is a real sin that causes real guilt. From the moment of their creation, infants are guilty of the deadly sin of original sin and hence are sinners, impious, and children of Satan:
Council of Trent [hereafter COT], Decree on Original Sin, 1546: “2. If any one asserts that the prevarication of Adam injured himself alone and not his posterity, and that the holiness and justice, received of God, which he lost, he lost for himself alone and not for us also; or that he being defiled by the sin of disobedience has only transfused death ‘and pains of the body into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul,’ let him be anathema, whereas he contradicts the apostle who says: ‘By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.’ (Rom. 5:12)â€
Pope St. Zosimus, Council of Carthage XVI, Original Sin and Grace, 418: “Canon 3. It has been decided likewise that if anyone says that for this reason the Lord said: ‘In my Father’s house there are many mansions’ [John 14:2]: that it might be understood that in the kingdom of heaven there will be some middle place or some place anywhere else where blessed [beati] infants live who departed from this life without baptism, without which they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is life eternal, let him be anathema. For when the Lord says: ‘Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God’ (Jn. 3:5), what Catholic will doubt that he will be a partner of the devil who has not deserved to be a coheir of Christ? For he who lacks the right part will without doubt run to the left.â€
Pope Gregory X, Second Council of Lyons, 1274: “The souls of those who die in mortal sin or only with original sin go down into hell, but there they receive unequal [disparibus] punishments.â€
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, 1439: “The souls of those who depart in actual mortal sin or in original sin only, descend immediately into hell but to undergo punishments of unequal [disparibus] kinds.â€
St. Augustine, quoted by St. Fulgentius: “The quality of an evil life begins with lack of faith, which takes its beginnings from the guilt of original sin. In it, each one begins to live in such a way that, before he ends his life, which is ended when freed from its bonds, if that soul has lived in the body for the space of one day or one hour, it is necessary that it suffer with that same body the endless punishments of hell, where the devil with his angels will burn forever. …Hold most firmly and never doubt that not only adults with the use of reason but also children who either begin to live in the womb of their mothers and who die there or, already born from their mothers, pass from this world without the sacrament of holy baptism must be punished with the endless penalty of eternal fire. Even if they have no sin from their actions, still, by their carnal conception and birth, they have contracted the damnation of original sin.â€
He punishes them with suffering, pain, death, and eternal damnation—unlike ultimately good-willed infants and children whose suffering, pain, and death bring them to eternal life. We will now see how God punishes wicked infants and children with suffering, pain, and death:
· God killed the firstborn males of the Egyptians: “And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.†(Exodus 12:12)
· God commanded Moses to kill infants and children: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Revenge first the children of Israel on the Madianites… Kill all that are of the male sex, even of the children.†(Num. 31:1-2, 17)
· God commanded Josue to kill infants and children: “And when in the seventh going about the priests sounded with the trumpets, Josue said to all Israel: Shout: for the Lord hath delivered the city to you… So all the people making a shout, and the trumpets sounding, when the voice and the sound thundered in the ears of the multitude, the walls forthwith fell down: and every man went up by the place that was over against him: and they took the city, and killed all that were in it, man and woman, young and old. The oxen also, and the sheep, and the asses, they slew with the edge of the sword.†(Josue 6:16, 20-21)
· God, speaking through the prophet Samuel, commanded King Saul to kill infants and children: “And Samuel said to Saul: …hearken thou unto the voice of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I have reckoned up all that Amalec hath done to Israel: how he opposed them in the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now therefore go, and smite Amalec, and utterly destroy all that he hath: spare him not, nor covet any thing that is his: but slay both man and woman, child and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.†(1 Kings 15:1-3)
· God allowed infants to be eaten by their wicked parents: “And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee. …And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress, wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.†(Deut. 28:53, 57)
· God’s judgment of killing evil infants is invoked by King David: “O daughter of Babylon, miserable: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us. Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.†(Ps. 136: 8-9)
· God inspires the Prophet Osee to curse evil infants: “Let Samaria perish, because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness: let them perish by the sword, let their little ones be dashed, and let the women with child be ripped up.†(Osee 14:1)
Let that put an end to the idolization of infants and children! Just because you cannot see God’s justice and mercy in this, do not dare call Him unjust or unmerciful because God is all just and all merciful.