BAPTISM 119 



under pain of grievous sin to have their children 

 baptized as soon as possible after birth. To 

 allow a child to die without Baptism is a mortal 

 sin. As regards the time, due attention should 

 be paid to approved custom and local eccle- 

 siastical regulations. Under the present dis- 

 cipline infants must be baptized as soon as 

 it can conveniently be done. 5 Most theologians 

 deem it a mortal sin to defer Baptism for more 

 than a month without reasonable cause. It is 

 safe to say that the reception of this most im- 

 portant Sacrament should not be postponed for 

 more than a few days unless there be some very 

 good reason for delay. 



The Rituale Romanum forbids a child to be 

 baptized in utero matris on the ground that the 

 Sacrament cannot be validly administered under 

 such conditions. This prohibition is based on an 

 assumption which has proved to be unfounded. 

 With the means now at command it is possible to 

 baptize an infant in utero, and therefore it should 

 be done. If the head can be reached, the child 

 should be baptized in the regular way, and the 

 Baptism must not be repeated if the child is born 

 alive; if the head cannot be reached but some 



n. 799); Rit. Rom., De Sacr. Bapt., Codex Iuris Can., can. 770: "In- 



tit. 2, c. 1, n. 1. fantes quamprimum baptizentur ; et 



Cat. Rom., P. II, c. 2, qu. 33.— parochi ac concionatores frequenter 



Decree of the Holy Office, of Jan. fideles de hac gravi eorum obliga- 



11, 1899: "Urgendum est, tit bap- tione commoneant." 

 tismus quam citius ministretur." — 



