Catholic teaching about going to heaven without being baptized?

If a child is born and dies before being baptised can she/he go to heaven?
Traditional theology and past church practices have answered the question in different ways. Visit any Catholic cemetery of sufficient history and there will be a section of the cemetery devoted to baptized infants. And often there will be a special section devoted to infants who died before they were able to be baptized. Regulations said that only those who were baptized could be buried in a Catholic cemetery. But that there was a baptism of desire if not by water by the parents who surely would have had their child baptized if there had been a chance allowed for the child to be buried in holy ground with the hope of resurrection.
Theological teaching put forth a notion of limbo, a place at the threshold of heaven where the un-baptized just did not experience the punishment of hell, yet were somehow deprived of the full experience of heaven. There has been no definitive statement by the Church promulgating limbo.
Baptism is normative for salvation: that means we believe the normal way to receive sanctifying grace and be washed from original sin comes through the rite of baptism. There are circumstances which allow for the baptism of desire (intending to be baptized, like a catechumen) or baptism of blood (dying for the faith even if not baptized). Thus baptism, while normative, is not the sole way Christ offers his grace to the world.

The report of the 2004 International Theological Commission on fate of unbaptized children gives a concise and consoling answer to the question. We are not quite certain how God’s mercy applies to un-baptized children, but we can be certain that God is merciful and just, and have every hope of salvation for all our loved ones. It can be found on line at www.vatican.va


If a man or woman lives a life of Christ-like virtue, can they go to heaven if they were not baptized?
The Church of Jesus Christ is the sign and symbol of the offer of universal salvation in Jesus Christ. What does it really mean to say that “outside of the Church, there is no salvation”? Does this mean that aside from the teachings of the Church, salvation can’t be found? Does it mean that one has to be a baptized Christian to avail of sanctifying grace?

That Christ is the universal savior for human kind is clearly a dogma of the Church. That Christ chose his Church to be the way to share the good news of salvation to the world is central to our mission as Christians. That baptism is the normal way to become “alive in Christ” has been part of our faith from the time of the apostles.

Nevertheless, there is clear evidence from scripture and tradition that there are those who are saved by Christ but have not been baptized. The patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament were justified when Christ decended to the dead and released those just souls who were awaiting the fulfillment of the covenant. Think about St. Joseph. It has been our tradition that Joseph was already dead at the time of Christ’s passion and the beginning of the Church that poured out in the blood and water from his wounded side. Was Joseph baptized in a liturgy of the Church equal to the baptism of the New Covenant? Most probably not, yet Joseph has been declared a patron of the Church and surely resides in heaven interceding for us.
 The Catechism states:

846: How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
336Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
337Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.
848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."

The Church admits the possibility of salvation for those who live a just and holy life and through no fault of their own, have not been evangelized. Yet we must ever be mindful that the Church is obligated to preach the gospel and baptize so that all can be assured of salvation.