The Catholic Church will not baptize a stillborn baby because it hasn't taken a breath.

[Cattledog]

Interesting take on when life begins.

[TheRealNorth]

1. I was seriously expecting a link to The Onion.

[onecaliberal]

2. FFS.

[walkingman]

3. When you think about religious dogma you have to

take all common sense and science and throw it out the window. It is not rational by any measure.

[gratuitous]

4. So our Supremes are more Catholic than the church

Still haven't heard back on whether a person's deeply held religious beliefs creates an exemption for the portion of a person's taxes going to military spending. Asking for a Friend. And a Mennonite. And a Brethren.

[dalton99a]

5. Conservative Catholics should go to heaven en masse ASAP and leave us alone

[Igel]

6. Interesting.

Then again, they won't baptize an infant that did draw breath if it has died, so maybe it's not the breath/no-breath distinction that matters?

https://www.catholic.com/qa/can-a-stillborn-child-be-baptized

Same for anybody else dead or who isn't physically present.

If you want letter and verse from the catechism, it appears to be embedded in this link.

One has to wonder if a zealous priest could succeed in baptizing a living-but-moribund child postpartum, one which hasn't yet drawn breath but still shows other signs of life such as movement and beating heart.


I'm not Catholic, never have been.

[Totally Tunsie]

8. I'm wondering how a newborn who "hasn't yet drawn breath"

would show "other signs of life such as movement and beating heart". How would that be possible? Postpartum, if the heart is beating and there is movement, it seems pretty certain the baby has drawn breath - no?

[sarisataka]

9. It is possible

If the baby has a clogged airway- alive but unable to breathe. It is an extremely critical situation when it happens.

[Totally Tunsie]

10. Would that not still be considered a "live" birth?

Even with a clogged airway, how could one be certain that some breath wasn't drawn in the birth process?

[sarisataka]

13. Yes it would be a live birth

That is getting down to splitting hairs if some bresth was drawn. If the airway is cleared the child will likely live; if not it's either trachiotomy or death.

[lostnfound]

29. Born but umbilical not cut -- that would be possible, right?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. A stillborn baby is dead. Catholics don't baptize the dead.

A more accurate gotcha would be they don't baptize live fetuses still in the uterus. But the water has to touch the skin, which is why they don't do that, either.

[FakeNoose]

11. As far as I know that has always been their teaching

And I went to Catholic schools in the 1950's and 60's, so I predate the "Religious Right" for the most part.

By the way I am pro-choice and I don't believe abortion is a mortal sin. In any case, even if I did believe abortion was a sin, I'd still be pro-choice because every women has the right to choose what happens to her own body.

[usonian]

12. It's a freedom of religion issue

Imposition of certain religious beliefs.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216869507
Rabbi fighting Florida's anti-abortion law challenging 'theocratic tyranny'

short:
the "theocratic tyranny" of laws that clash with the Jewish belief that abortion is a basic right and life begins at birth, not conception

And if he wins, appeals all the way up to:

[Wicked Blue]

14. Yet women have been arrested and convicted of murder for miscarriages.

I am getting so confused from all the hypocrisy.

[sanatanadharma]

15. The unborn soul is free of original sin ...

... and thus has no need of baptism.
They are souls on the fast track to Heaven.

Such unborn souls are sinless and return directly back to God.
Such souls don't experience a lifetime of separation from God.
Such souls are never taught a lifelong fear of death and God.
Such souls are more blessed than any of those living souls seeking to guarantee each precious soul gets their own lifetime of sadness, sorrow, and pain.

It is all there in the Bible and in 2000 years of inbred theological illogicals.
:blasphemy:

[bottomofthehill]

16. I thought they went to the Guf

I hated theology class and most others but I really hated the concept of the Guf.

[colorado_ufo]

20. I am not familiar with that term, however

I often think back to the first child of David and Bathsheba, before Solomon. Because of David's sin, the child died soon after birth, and (if memory serves) was taken directly back to God himself.

[Bucky]

17. I'll bet Rick Santorum would

[madinmaryland]

19. Ugh. That would just become a frothy mess.

[SergeStorms]

18. A fertilized egg becomes a child....

WHEN THE FASCIST SUPREME WHORES SAY IT DOES!

And don't think it won't become a moving target if it benefits them in some obscure fashion.

[Joinfortmill]

21. As a former Catholic, let me just say they need to shut their doors and give their loot to the poor.

[Mr. Evil]

24. I could make a snarky comment like 'don't hold your breath but,

I won't. As a recovering Catholic myself you're absolutely right and I feel your pain.

[Joinfortmill]

25. 👍

[Mr. Evil]

22. Religion proves one thing for certain.

That the human mind is as malleable as Play-Doh. It's main use is to turn a person into a quivering mass of delirium with a mind of mush. A lifelong state of fear and apprehension.

There is no magic. You have to base reality on reality. You know, facts and learned truths. Basing reality and society on ancient mythology is a bad mix. Like mixing alcohol and opium based painkillers, ammonia and bleach, republicans (Party Of Death) and freedom.

[mgardener]

23. It is not because they have not taken a breath,

Baptism, as all the sacraments, are for the living.
Secondly, it needs to be understood that the Sacraments of the Catholic Church are for the living. The Sacrament of Baptism represents the entrance of a person into the faith community of Christians, with the intention of putting that faith into action.

Glad I left the church.

[LeftInTX]

26. They baptize stillborn babies.

Holy water is kept on the shelves...
Nurses can baptize
I used to work at a Catholic hospital.

[Bettie]

27. My anti-choice inlaws

every last one of them, said my baby who died during a delayed c-section (doctor didn't answer pager...it was bad) wasn't a child because she never took a breath. They also informed me that not only did she not count, her soul was in hell.

So, there's christianity for you.

[Dorian Gray]

28. You don't baptize

dead people. Period.