Supporting Resources
Below find resources that offer supporting evidence for the movement around Baby Brian and the discernment around baptism of desire for infants.
Books
Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation by Fr. Tony Lusvardi, SJ
This book was a doctoral dissertation-turned-book. It walks through the history of baptism of desire within the church and shows how such a sacramental approach can offer credible—and sometimes surprising—responses to questions related to the salvation of non-Christians, the fate of unbaptized infants, and the relevance of the Church’s mission today. While conservative in how broadly the theology can be applied to adults, the conclusions offer credible support for baptism of desire for infants whose parents intended to baptize them, but were prevented by an untimely death.
The Ratzinger Report by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XIV)
Pages 147-148: "Limbo was never a defined truth of faith. Personally -and here I am speaking more as a theologian and not as Prefect of the Congregation-I would abandon it since it was only a theological hypothesis. It formed part of a second- ary thesis in support of a truth which is absolutely of first significance for faith, namely, the importance of baptism. To put it in the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God' (In 3:5). One should not hesitate to give up the idea of 'limbo' if need be (and it is worth noting that the very theologians who proposed 'limbo' also said that parents could spare the child limbo by desiring its baptism and through prayer); but the concern behind it must not be surrendered. Baptism has never been a side issue for faith; it is not now, nor will it ever be.” Emphasis added.
Catholic Guide to Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss by Dr. Abigail Jorgensen
This first-of-its-kind resource blends Jorgensen’s professional expertise as a sociologist and Catholic bereavement doula with the wisdom of the Church to provide an essential guide through the most pressing concerns that arise during this difficult time. Drawing on the Bible, the Church’s prayer traditions, the saints, sacraments, official teaching documents, and grief support research, Jorgensen offers comfort, hope, and compassionate responses to tough questions, in the area of perinatal loss. Her book, marked with an imprimatur, does not shy away from discussing the difficulty that arises for parents from an undefined theology around the salvation of infants who die before they can be baptized.
Nursery of Heaven by Patrick O’Hearn and Cassie Everts
This book is largely a compilation of stories from those who have experienced miscarriage and pregnancy loss. It gives a window into the depth of suffering that comes with such a loss and in some cases the trust that these babies are in heaven, and in some cases struggle between undefined teaching on the salvation of these babies and the longing of parents to know their children have been received into the beatific vision
Science and the Miraculous by Michael O’Neill
There is a chapter specifically dedicated to incorruptibles, detailing the Church’s view on incorruptibility and the specifics on the findings of the body of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who is one of the the most famous, well-documented, and best preservations of an incorrupt body. While preserved well-beyond expectation, at her exhumation 30 years after her death, descriptions include: the lashes of her right eyelid were stuck to the skin; the nose was dilated and shrunken; a toenail was torn off when the corpse was washed; when the the habits were removed the whole of the shriveled body could be seen, rigid and taut in every limb; the stomach had caved in and was taut; the lower parts of the body had turned slightly black; before the body was washed and laid in a new coffin, within the few hours in which it had been exposed to the air, the body had started turning black. On a second exhumation in 1913 (34 years after death) the body was still intact and odorless, but descriptions include: the body is practically mummified, covered with patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts; the skin has disappeared in some places.
The Incorruptibles by Joan Carroll Cruz
Continuously popular since it first appeared in 1977, The Incorruptibles remains the acknowledged classic on the bodies of saints that did not undergo decomposition after death. After explaining both natural and artificial mummification, the author shows that the incorruption of the saints' bodies fits neither category but rather constitutes a much greater phenomenon that is unexplained by modern science to this day. The author presents 102 canonized saints, beati, and venerables, summarizing their lives, the discovery of their incorruption, and investigations by Church and medical authorities. In comparing Brian’s body to those of the incorrupt saints, his post-mortem findings are more consistent with those who are considered incorrupt than with descriptions of bodies that are preserved by natural means.
Articles
Eaves-drip burial Wikipedia article
Describes the medieval custom of burying infants and small children under the eaves of churches. “According to archaeologist, Elizabeth Craig-Atkins, "The most consistently favored explanation for eaves-drip burial is that rain falling on the church roof would have become holy water by contact with a holy building, and then have fallen directly onto the zones of neonate and infant burials providing some form of posthumous reinforcement of the baptismal ritual.”
Doctrinal and Physical Marginality in Christian Death: The Burial of Unbaptized Infants in Medieval Italy by Madison Crowe, Colleen Zori, and Davide Zori
This is an academic paper published in Religions, in 2020. Abstract introduction: The burial of unbaptized fetuses and infants, as seen through texts and archaeology, exposes friction between the institutional Church and medieval Italy’s laity. The Church’s theology of Original Sin, baptism, and salvation left the youngest children especially vulnerable to dying unbaptized and subsequently being denied a Christian burial in consecrated grounds. We here present textual and archaeological evidence from medieval Italy regarding the tensions between canon law and parental concern for the eternal salvation of their infants’ souls.
Let the Children Come to Me by Matthew Newsome, published by Catholic Answers
This article was written in 2007, shortly after the publication of the ITC document on Hope for the Salvation of Unbaptized Babies. It reflects on the fact that the document emphasizes the reality of original sin and the need for baptism, but lays the groundwork for real reasons to hope that God could give these babies salvation outside the ordinary means of the sacrament.
”However, with regard to the salvation of those who die without baptism, the word of God says little or nothing. It is therefore necessary to interpret the reticence of Scripture on this issue in the light of texts concerning the universal plan of salvation and the ways of salvation. In short, the problem both for theology and for pastoral care is how to safeguard and reconcile two sets of biblical affirmations: those concerning God’s universal salvific will (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4) and those regarding the necessity of baptism as the way of being freed from sin and conformed to Christ (cf. Mark 16:16; Matt. 28:18-19).. . . [W]hile knowing that the normal way to achieve salvation in Christ is by Baptism in re, the Church hopes that there may be other ways to achieve the same end. Because, by his Incarnation, the Son of God “in a certain way united himself” with every human being, and because Christ died for all and all are in fact “called to one and the same destiny, which is divine,” the Church believes that “the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery.””
Remembering the Unbaptized Christian Children: All Saints Day … or All Souls Day? by Dr. Kody W. Cooper, published by Word on Fire
The author expresses that this question is borne from the pain of the loss of his infant son. With fidelity to the Church, and review of the history of the views on infant salvation, he asserts, “If God’s mercy is unfathomably capacious, then it is fitting that God makes means available to the unborn to receive that mercy. We know God can save through the baptism of desire, and we know that the same God who forms every infant in the womb can give sanctifying grace to those still in the womb (Job 31:15; Jeremiah 1:5). Putting all this together, in the spirit of Cajetan’s view, I have contended that it is a special privilege of Christian parents who desire to baptize their children to supply the requisite voto, which they would supply in solidarity with the Church at a normal baptism.”
Lectures and Videos
“Blessed Among Women”: Typology, Motherhood, and the Presence of God.
In honor of its 25th annual Fall Conference, the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture considered how the phenomenon of living tradition—whether dogmatic, religious, literary, artistic, legal, interpretive, or otherwise, up to and including the customs, embodied practices, and habits of everyday life—serves to bridge past and future. This particular lecture has a more indirect relationship to the movement around Baby Brian. The panelists illustrate how women can grow to be a seat of the divine in and through their motherhood, how God shows us his love through the image of the mother and her child, and the mother becoming a typology for Christ for her child in her “woundability” and through the blood and water poured from the mother for the sake of the child, both in childbirth itself through breastfeeding her infant.
