258. Why does the Church baptize infants?

258. Why does the Church baptize infants? 

(Comp 258) The Church baptizes infants because they are born with original sin. They need to be freed from the power of the Evil One and brought into that realm of freedom which belongs to the children of God.

“In brief” 

(CCC 1282) Since the earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit; children are baptized in the faith of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom. 

To deepen and explain  

(CCC 1250) Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called (Cf. Council of Trent (1546): DS 1514; cf. Col 1:12-14). The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth (Cf. CIC, can. 867; CCEO, cann. 681; 686, 1). 

 On reflection  

(CCC 403) Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul" (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1512). Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1514). (CCC 1251) Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them (Cf. LG 11; 41; GS 48; CIC, can. 868). (CCC 1252) The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole "households" received baptism, infants may also have been baptized (Cf. Acts 16:15, 33; 18:8; 1 Cor 1:16; CDF, instruction, Pastoralis  actio: AAS 72 (1980) 1137-1156). (CCC 1283) With respect to children who have died without Baptism, the liturgy of the Church invites us to trust in God's mercy and to pray for their salvation. 

(Next question: What is required of one who is to be baptized?)