Baptism of Desire and the Salvation of Souls

By Fr. François Laisney

Contents of This Article

The Law of Baptism

1/ There is a LAW established by Jesus Christ, that every man must be baptized in order to be saved. John 3:5 "Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Note that Our Lord clearly speaks here of the Sacrament of Baptism, i.e. the Baptism of water. The Council of Trent teaches that the Sacrament of Baptism is the "instrumental cause" of the grace in the soul: it is the ordinary and obligatory means of receiving the grace of God for the first time.

This Law does not establish a mere extrinsic necessity of Baptism; like the Laws of nature, it belongs to the very nature of Baptism to cause the grace in our souls (ex opere operato): it is the only means at our disposal to get this grace: therefore it is absolutely necessary TO US.

God can give "Baptism of Desire"

2/ Yet God is not bound by the Laws He has set: as He sometimes produces an effect in the natural order bypassing the ordinary secondary causes He had established (this is what is called "a MIRACLE"), so also He can sometimes produce the grace in souls bypassing the ordinary secondary causes, i.e. without the exterior sign of the Sacrament: this is a miracle in the supernatural order, e.g. Christ walked on the waters: he produced an effect (to support his body above the water) without the natural cause (a solid ground), thus not following the Law of gravity. In the same way, He can give His grace and open Heaven to a soul without the waters of Baptism, (The Fathers, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine give the example of the penitent thief). The same is true after Baptism, if one loses sanctifying grace by a mortal sin, God can restore it in this soul even before the actual reception of the Sacrament of Confession, by a perfect contrition. Thus the possibility of Baptism of desire.

God does give "Baptism of Desire"

3/ God does sometimes work such miracles. That some receive sanctifying grace before baptism of water is not only a possibility, it is a fact! St. Augustine speaks of Catholic catechumens "burning with Charity," he gives the example of the Centurion Cornelius (Act. 10:44-47) who was "filled with the Holy Ghost before his Baptism." (R.J. 1629)

This does not dispense from the Law of Baptism

4/ One who has received sanctifying grace before the actual reception of the Sacrament IS NOT DISPENSED from the Law of God, obliging him to receive the Sacrament. This Law still applies to him. As a matter of fact, he would not have the grace of God, unless he has this submission of his will to the Will of God, thus including (implicitly or explicitly) the will to receive the Sacrament. The same is true of perfect contrition: it does NOT dispense from confession, it cannot even be had without the will to go to confession as soon as possible.

It is important to stress here that Baptism of desire is more than the mere desire of Baptism, in a similar way that perfect contrition is more than the mere desire of confession. In both cases, the former includes the full spiritual life (sanctifying grace with a "living Faith," "working through Charity"), the latter can be the effect of a mere actual grace. In both cases too, if one fully cooperates with the actual grace, Jesus Christ will lead this soul to the fullness of His spiritual life, because the goal and end of actual grace is always the gift of sanctifying grace.

Some souls in Heaven died with only Baptism of Desire

5/ Yet it may and did happen that SOME DIED BEFORE they could fulfil this good will, and God counts the will for the fact. God does not ask the impossible; if, without fault on one's part, such a person with Baptism of desire (or perfect contrition) is prevented from the exterior reception of the Sacrament before his death, he can still go to Heaven. This FACT of Baptism of desire is undeniable. It is a truth solidly established in the History of the Church and asserted in the writings of the Saints and Popes (see references below) that God did and does save souls, giving them His grace (the interior grace of Baptism) without the Sacrament (exterior sign) of Baptism (they receive the sacramental grace without the sacramental sign).

Baptism of Desire is Not a Sacrament

6/ One must notice that "Baptism of desire" is NOT A SACRAMENT; it does not have the exterior sign required in the sacraments. The theologians, following St. Thomas Aquinas, Prince of theologians, call it "Baptism" only because it produces the GRACE of Baptism; yet it does not produce the sacramental character. St. Thomas calls it "Baptism of Flame," because it is the Flame of the Holy Ghost giving the Light of Faith and burning love of Charity in the soul. (See below about the character of Baptism).

Note also that the Baptism of blood, according to St. Thomas, is even more perfect than the Baptism of water, because of the greater conformity with Our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, source of all graces. Hence Baptism of blood washes away all the punishment due to sin. All the Doctors have taught that Martyrdom leads directly to Heaven!

However Baptism of desire (possibly) does not wash away all the punishment due to sin. Thus after baptism of desire, one might still have to pass through purgatory. See Innocent II below who orders prayers and sacrifices for such souls. St. Thomas teaches explicitly this in IIIa qu.68 a.2 ad.2m.

Sanctifying Grace with Faith, Hope and Charity are absolutely necessary

7/ One must insist upon the fact that the interior sanctifying grace, with the virtues of Faith (Catholic Faith of course!), hope and charity, are absolutely necessary for salvation. It is the very nature of Baptism of desire, that God produces this grace with the infused supernatural virtues in the soul directly. Therefore, if any one denies the truth of the Catholic Faith, he does not have this baptism of desire, he CANNOT go to Heaven, unless he repents from this denial. Sanctifying grace is not "a means of salvation" (like a replaceable tool), it is the very constitutive element of the adoption as children of God; Charity is of the very nature of the friendship with God. The Church always taught that there is no remission of sin without the infusion of sanctifying grace (Rom 3:24; Ia II qu 113, a 2; Trent VI, can. 11). St. Paul is clear: "Without Faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). He speaks of the Catholic Faith, of course! He also wrote that God "wants all men to be saved AND TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH" (I Tim. 2:4); thus salvation cannot be attained by one with the use of his reason, without God revealing and man believing this Truth by a supernatural virtue and act of Faith. He does not have to know everything explicitly, but he has to believe all what he knows of the Revelation: see below about how explicit that Faith must be.

Note that the inner virtue of Faith will incline the soul not only to believe the truth, but also to reject the errors: thus if someone was validly baptized as a child in a protestant sect, (at a valid baptism, God gives the true virtue of Faith, i.e. the Catholic Faith), when he grows up, this inner grace he received will incline him to reject the errors he hears from the protestant minister; he may accept that minister's words when he says: "Jesus is Saviour"; but he will have to reject it when he says: "Nothing is commanded in the Gospel except faith, and everything else is indifferent, neither prescribed nor prohibited, but free" or "unbelief is the only sin that is mortal," or "grace once received can be lost by no other sin, regardless of its gravity or enormity, except unbelief" (= once saved always saved") (Trent, VI, can 19 & 27). If he does not correspond to this inner grace of Faith, and consciously accepts the protestant errors in spite of that clear inner grace of Faith inclining him to reject them, he loses the virtue of Faith, and thus sanctifying grace. If he remains puzzled and hesitates, yet not fully accepting these errors, we should not judge him, but leave all judgment to God, "who searches the hearts." In all cases, we should not judge the individual persons since we cannot know their hearts, but we must rather pray for them and exhort them and warn them of the necessity of the Catholic Faith and Charity and unity!

Note that the life of the Saints show that an error on a complicated point of doctrine is not incompatible with Faith: even Doctors of the Church have erred or been unclear on some points of Doctrine such as the compatibility of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception and of the fact that she needed to be saved by Jesus Christ. However these Saints were rather searching for the truth than asserting in a definite way their erroneous opinion: there was no pertinacity in their error. How much more such error can be found among people who have been less exposed to the Doctrine of the Church! Yet the inner virtue of Faith in those with baptism of desire will incline them not to be pertinacious in these errors. Pertinacity in an error against a Dogma is incompatible with the virtue of Faith, and thus with salvation.

"Outside the Church, there is no salvation."

8/ One direct consequence of the previous point #7 is that these souls do belong to the Mystical Body of Christ, which IS the Catholic Church. St. Thomas, in his only question in the whole Summa dealing with the Church (IIIa qu 8), teaches that union "actu—in act" with Christ is essentially by this sanctifying grace with Faith, Hope and Charity (article 3). Those who do not have the Faith are only united with Him "in potentia", i.e. they CAN become united with Him, but are not yet united with Him. Thus this Catholic Doctrine on Baptism of Desire is far from opposed to the Dogma "Outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation!" The exterior union with the Church, by submission to the authorities of the Church is just the natural consequences of the ulterior Faith, Hope and Charity; this is manifest in the Catechumens, who already follow the directives of the Church; this is visible in the others too by their docility to listen to the Church when they get to know Her properly.

The Doctrine of Baptism of Desire is useful to manifest the PRIMACY of the interior union with Christ, by the True Faith, "living Faith" (see James II 26), "Faith working through charity" (Gal. VI 5). The exterior union with the Church, without this living Faith, is not sufficient for salvation!

Some Examples

9/ How do they receive this sanctifying grace? It may be at the time one is taking instructions to become Catholic: i.e. a catechumen; thus in the mission countries, where the missionary was passing every six months, a catechumen who would already believe and practice the Catholic Faith, though he would not yet be baptized, if he dies in such a state could go to Heaven; this may be the most common case. This first example is the one given in the Catechism of the Council of Trent.

It may be through the ministry of Angels, like in the Old Testament (see also the second example of Chartres below).

It may be through reading the Holy Bible; thus suppose a protestant missionary in Siberia dropped a bible at someone's home, if the person read it, believes and puts in practice what God said there (the Bible is Catholic!), that person has the Catholic Faith and Charity, and could go to Heaven if he/she died before being baptized.

It can be just through the grace of an interior light, which God can grant to whomever He wants because He is Almighty! (See the first example below). God is not limited in His means!