The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 171: The Necessity of Baptism (2026)

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

“Baptism is the sacrament of faith.” The Catechism explains to us who can baptize as well as why we need Baptism for eternal life. It also explains to us what happens when people die without the opportunity for Baptism. Fr. Mike addresses our “what about” questions concerning Baptism. Most especially, Fr. Mike addresses the destination of those who will never have the opportunity to hear the Gospel or be baptized. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1253-1261. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 171. We're bringing paragraphs 1253 to 1261. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church, you can also download your own

free catechism in-year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash c-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 171. We are reading paragraphs 1253 to 1261. We're talking more about baptism. So we recognize that faith and baptism go hand in hand. And sometimes it's the faith of the baptized person, right? The faith of the person who's asking for the sacrament of baptism. And sometimes it's the faith the parents or the God parents that speaks, but nonetheless, there always has to be faith. We're also going to talk about who can baptize and the necessity of baptism today. And so as we launch into these three pieces, how closely united faith and baptism are, who can

baptize and the necessity of baptism, I think it's worth it. It's worth it to come before the Lord and just give this day to him. Whether you're listening to this at the beginning of the day, middle of the day, end of the day, to be able to say, okay, God, whatever this day is, wherever we're at in this day, it's yours. And so we pray, Father in heaven, We come before you and we give you this day. We give you all the joys and sorrows of this day. We give you all the victories and frustrations of this day. We give you the work and the rest of this day.

Let it all be for you. Let it all be a gift to you because this day has been your gift to us. And so as we come before you, we do not want to come before you empty-handed. Lord God, even our failures we bring to you, even our sins we bring to you. We all want to bring to you those things are. proud of and those wins, that great work. And you accept those, but you also accept our weaknesses. You also accept our failures. You also accept our sins. We bring it all to you, the good days and the bad days, the victories and the losses. It is all yours because you are the Lord. Truly, you are the Lord

of everything of everything in our lives and everything today. So please accept it all. in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 171. We are reading paragraphs 1253 to 1261. Faith and baptism. Baptism is the sacrament of faith.

But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the church that each of the faithful can believe. The faith required for baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning that is called to develop. The catechumen or the godparent is asked, what do you ask of God's church? Response is, faith.

For all the baptized, children or adults, faith must grow after baptism. For this reason, the church celebrates each year at the Easter Vigil the renewal of baptismal promises. Preparation for baptism leads only to the threshold of new life. Baptism is the source of that new life in Christ from which the entire Christian life springs forth. For the grace of the grace of the church of the church life,

baptism to unfold, the parents' help is important. So too is the role of the godfather and godmother, who must be firm believers, able and ready to help the newly baptized, child or adult, on the road of Christian life. Their task is a truly ecclesial function, officium. The whole ecclesial community bears some responsibility for the development and safeguarding of the grace given at baptism. Who can baptize? The ordinary ministers of baptism are the bishop and priest, and in the Latin church, also of the deacon. In case of necessity, anyone, even a non-baptized person with the required intention can baptize by using the Trinitarian baptismal formula. The intention required is to will to do what the church does when she baptizes. The church finds the reason for this possibility in the

universal saving will of God and the necessity of baptism for salvation. The necessity of baptism. The Lord himself affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude. That is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are reborn of water and the spirit. God has bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.

The church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This baptism of blood, like the desire for baptism, brings about the fruits of baptism without being a sacrament. For catechumans who die before their baptism, their explicit desire to receive it together with repentance for their sins and charity, assures them the salvation. that they were not able to receive through the sacrament. Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers

in a way known to God of the Pascal mystery. Every man who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his church, but seeks the truth, and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would, have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity. 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 rights for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus is tenderness toward children which caused him to say, let the children come to me,

do not hinder them, 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. Okay, there we are, paragraphs 1253 to 1261, day 171. You guys, okay, let's start at the beginning, and we'll get to this last piece. The last piece is very deep and is incredible, but we'll start at the beginning, faith and baptism. We recognize that faith is the entrance into new life, and baptism is the door. Well, I don't know. I just made that up, but we know that Faith and baptism are linked. They're linked.

So if an adult is seeking baptism, it's because they have the response of faith. And if an adult is bringing a child to be baptized, it is the faith of the adult that speaks on behalf of the child. So I think we might have talked about this before. But if you even go to Mark's Gospel chapter 2, there's the story of the paralyzed man. Do you remember this? We talked about this. The paralyzed man.

He has four friends. And they bring him to Jesus on this mat. And of course, there's so many people around the door that they can't get through the door so they go up on the roof and they do a little chip and Joanna Gaines, you know, remodeling action, make a skylight, it's to lower the man down in front of Jesus. It says this very clearly. It says in both Matthew's Gospel and in Mark's gospel, it says, Jesus, seeing their faith says to the man, child your sins are forgiven. And it's a case where the faith of someone else has spoken on behalf of the person who is forgiven, the person who's healed. So we recognize that, okay, this extends even to the

sacraments, this extends to baptism. So because of this, a godfather, godmother, a father or mother can bring their child to baptism, and it's their faith that speaks on behalf of the child. So this is not like antiscriptural. It's not unscriptural. It is very much in scripture that where someone's faith speaks on behalf of another. And so that's what we have when it comes to infant baptism. Of course, at the same time, faith needs to grow afterwards for all of us. It's just the beginning. In fact, I love how it says, for all the baptized, children or adults, faith must grow after baptism, which is why we renew our baptismal promises at the Easter vigil, that sense of, okay, at one point in my life, someone spoke these words for me. Now I get the chance to speak them for myself.

At one point, someone's faith spoke on my behalf. Now, it is my faith, my response to God. Of course, by God's grace, my response to God that speaks. And that's so incredibly important. Who can baptize? We talked about this. We gave a little teaser for it yesterday. Who can baptize? Well, bishop and priest, ordinary ministers, and also the deacon in our Latin church. But in case of necessity, anyone can baptize. The rationale behind the notion, the belief that anyone can baptize is that God wants all people to be saved and that baptism is necessary for salvation. And so the only things that are required are the intention to do what the church does when she baptizes, to baptize with water and to use the trinitarian baptismal formula. So it's like great. So I know a lot of times my mom who is a nurse and my

grandmas who were nurses, they had said that back in the day in nurses training, they taught nurses how to baptize. And because if there's case of emergency, they'd say, okay, just baptize this child. The last piece, because the last piece is so important. I mean, obviously who can baptize is very important. The ordinary ministers being the bishop, the priest of the deacon. The extraordinary minister being anybody. And this actually goes to the next piece. because we're going to talk about the necessity of baptism. Jesus himself affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation. In John chapter 3, verse 5, he says, only those who are born again of water and the spirit can enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so Jesus talks about baptism as being necessary for salvation. He also, at the very end of Matthew's gospel, he commands his disciples, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. This is so incredibly important. so incredibly important that we say that it's necessary to all those to whom the gospel has been proclaimed and who had the possibility of asking for the sacrament. Every one of these paragraphs from 1257 to 1261 are very important, especially because a lot of us have these questions, what about, what about, what about? So here's the first thing. It's necessary. And in the middle of paragraph 1257, it says, the church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry

into eternal beatitude. We just don't know of any. Jesus has given us this. And to say like, well, yeah, there should be something else. Maybe there is, but we don't know of any, right? We just have to take what Jesus has given us. And Jesus is the Lord God. And keep this in mind. God knows all the things, right? God is in charge of all the things. God knows everything vastly, vastly more than any of us could ever hope to understand. And so God is the one who gave us the sacrament of baptism. And God is also the one who said, this is the way, right? That he has not given us another way. And so God is not unjust, right? God is completely just. And the church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude at the same time. We do know this. And this is one of these lines that's

very important. When I say a line, it's a principle. And it's the last line of paragraph 1257. The principle is, God has bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism, but he himself, is not bound by his sacraments. In other way, I will always tell our students this, that every time a sacrament is celebrated, God is there. He's active. He's doing the thing. So every time someone's baptized, boom, he's there doing the thing.

To the sacrament of confession, reconciliation. Every time someone goes there, he forgives. But he himself is not bound by his sacraments. God can do whatever God wants to do, right? At the same time, keep this in mind. We only know that of baptism as the way to eternal salvation, as the doorway to eternal salvation. Keep that in mind.

Now, going on 1258, there is such a thing as baptism by blood. So those who have died for grace. In the 2000 year history of the church, there are people who have died for Jesus Christ who are not baptized. And so the church has said, yeah, they would be beyond the pale to imagine

that someone who actually shed their blood for the faith and shed their blood for Jesus Christ would not be in heaven, right? So that sense of baptism by blood, also baptism by desire, that those people, like catechumans in 1259, those people, they're on their way, they've been received into the order of the catechuminate, a role of the catechuminate, and they're desiring baptism, and they're repenting of their sins, and they're getting closer and closer to the Lord. But sometimes, you know, RCI takes nine months.

Sometimes it takes three years. And what about, what if I die before I get baptized? This is the question that a lot of our students who are in RCIA, they're asking the question, here, I'm not baptized yet. Can I just get baptized now? And then like I'll keep doing the classes because I don't want to lose my salvation. I want to get baptized. This is a baptism by desire. They desire baptism explicitly. It is only an accident of situation that's preventing them from actually being baptized in the moment, right? It's a calendar thing. So hopefully that makes sense. Last two things. What about those who have never been baptized? What about children? So paragraph 1260

makes it very, very clear that, and this comes from the Second Vatican Council, it is a formulation that just is, I think it's very helpful for us, because it takes into mind, here's what we know, keeps in mind, here's what we know, that Jesus has made it very clear that baptism is necessary for salvation. Scripture has also made it very clear that God wills that all men be saved. And so let's go back to this. So since Christ died for all, right, he didn't die just for some. Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one in the same

destiny, which is divine, meaning that God wants every human being on this planet. Everyone, he wants everyone to be a saint, meaning he wants everyone to live with him forever in heaven. We must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers in a way known to God of the pascal mystery, which means that there's no one alive, right? There's no one living on this planet for whom Jesus has died who doesn't have a chance, doesn't have a chance to say yes to God in that definitive way. Does that make sense? It's because we do hold this that every human being made in God's image, that God wants every person he's ever created to be a saint with him forever in heaven. And so in a way known to God, we don't know. In some ways, we don't have to know. In a way known to God,

he makes it possible for every human being who lives to say yes to him in this definitive way. Does that make sense? This is what the church is affirming. To be people always ask the question. What about, you know, a Muslim in Turkey who's never here is really the God. What about someone in Borneo who never hears the gospel? What about someone way out in Siberia who never hears the gospel or wherever the thing is? We know that since Jesus Christ died for all and that he wants every person to be saved in a way known to God alone, because we don't know, that we hold on to this belief, hold on to this truth, that God makes it possible in some way, that every person has a chance to say yes to him in a definitive way.

goes on every person who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his church but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it can be saved this is very important a couple notes on this so everyone who's ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his church so this is not a willed ignorance this is a accidental ignorance we'll say it like that invincible ignorance where like I don't know and I couldn't have known so every person who's ignorant of the gospel of Christ in his church but seeks the truth and does the will of God. Now, this is very important because it's not just like, oh, I didn't know, therefore I automatically go to heaven.

No, I have to actively seek the truth and I have to actively do the will of God as I understand it. And this is so important because I'm responding to God's grace in this. If I'm just kind of laxidaisical, like, oh, I didn't happen to know the message of Jesus. I didn't happen to know the Catholic Church was the church he established. Then I'm fine. Like, no, every human being has to, all of us, wherever we're at, have to, have to seek the truth and do the will of God as we understand it, that God's grace is broad, that its grace is

deep. And so we hold out hope that all those who do that can be saved. It may be supposed it goes on to say that such persons would have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity. Last thing, as regards children who have died without baptism. What do we say? Well, the church can only entrust them to the mercy of God. That we have funeral rights for children who were not baptized. What's that mean? That means we hope. You know, a funeral, a Catholic funeral is not merely a celebration of life. A Catholic funeral is not merely a ritual. A Catholic funeral is not merely a way to say goodbye. A Catholic funeral is a prayer for that person who has died. This is so important. We're going to get to that when we talk about funerals later on. But the point of the funeral is to pray for the person

who has died. And we only pray for people when we have hope for them. If they were lost, if there was no possibility of them being in heaven, then there's no reason to pray. but the church entrusts all those babies who died without baptism, all those children who died without baptism, we entrust them to the mercy of God. Because, I mean, think about this, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved and Jesus' tenderness toward children.

Remember he said, let the children come to me, do not hinder them? Both of those things allow us the hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without baptism. So keep this in mind. I know so many people who are listening to this, you've lost children, whether that be you've lost children in the womb. So what about my child, you know, I would have baptized him or her, but I lost them in the womb.

Or there was no chance. Unexpectedly, my child died and I just can't imagine the grief. I cannot even begin to imagine the grief. But then there's that secondary grief, that secondary grief of, well, I see my child in heaven. The church says we hold out hope, hold out hope that these children, your child or your are in heaven, are with the Lord God, who desires again, all men to be saved. And when Jesus said, let the children come to me, do not hinder them that he was talking about your child. When Jesus said, let the children come to me, do not hinder them. He was talking about your child. He was talking

about your children. And so we know that this is the heart of God. And this is so important for us. because the church says right here explicitly, yes, baptism, so necessary and at the same time. God's love is even bigger than his sacraments. God's love comes to us in his sacraments? Absolutely. And God's love is even bigger than his sacraments. He is bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments. His love is unbounded.

That love has touched your children whom you lost. And that love is where your children live right now. That's what we hope. And so our call right now is to continue to live in that love. Our call right now is to continue to walk in that love so that one day we are in that same place where parents and children are once again reunited in the love of Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. That's our hope. So please know.

I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.