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Questions / Confession and the sacraments

Why baptize babies who cannot yet believe?

Scripture

Answered on video by Ascension Presents

Video: Why Do We Baptize Babies in the Catholic Church?, Ascension Presents, published May 10, 2022. Checked 10 October 2026. Loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play. Watch on YouTube

In short: Catholics agree faith and Baptism go together. For babies, the parents and the Church bring the faith until the child can. Mark 16:16

The answer, in writing

Church teaching

Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Mark 16:16

The faith Baptism needs is not a perfect, mature faith but a beginning that is meant to grow, inside the faith of the Church. CCC 1253

That’s why parents and godparents matter: they help the grace of Baptism unfold. CCC 1255

Our words

Catholics and Protestants agree that faith and Baptism go together. The question is whose faith carries a baby until they can speak for themselves. The Catholic answer: the family’s and the Church’s.

Next step: The full case

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Related questions

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Sources on this page

How we know · 2 Catechism paragraphs · 1 Bible passage
  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1253, 1255 (official text on vatican.va).
  2. Scripture (World English Bible, Catholic edition, public domain; modern verse numbers, Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ): Mark 16:16.

Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words and cites every teaching claim. Our own wording is not an official Church text. Found a mistake? Report an errorCorrections.