Annotation CCCXI

”Having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.” — Philippians 1:23

Whether prayer is to be made for catechumens departing without baptism.

Chrysostom, [in] the third homily on the epistle to the Philippians, seems to indicate that for catechumens departing without baptism, prayer is not to be made. For thus he writes: “WE APPEASE God, praying for the dead. But this we say indeed of those who died in the faith; but catechumens we do not deem worthy even of this solace, but they are destitute of all help of this kind — one indeed being excepted. What is that? It is permitted to give to the poor in their name [as alms]; whence some refreshment accrues to them.” I would believe these [things] are to be understood not of private and secret prayers, but of public and solemn supplications — that is, of the singing of psalms, and the sacrifices of masses, wherewith the funerals and obsequies of Christians are wont to be celebrated. For when the ancient fathers had observed that certain catechumens, out of laziness and sloth, deferred the sacrament of baptism even to the last day of life, they took away from them the honor of ecclesiastical burial and the public oblation of the divine sacrifice — that, deterred by fear of this ignominy and detriment, they might hasten to baptism as soon as possible. Whence in the first Council of Braga there is extant a canon “On the punishment of the damned [de supplicio damnatorum],” decreeing the same [kind of] funeral for catechumens of this sort, and for those who inflict death upon themselves, or who, on account of crimes committed, are put to death by public execution, in these words: “LIKEWISE it has been decreed, that for those who inflict death upon themselves either by the sword, or by poison, or by a precipice [fall], or by hanging, or in any manner of violence, no commemoration be made for them in the oblation, nor be their bodies led to their burial with psalms. Likewise it has been decreed to be done concerning those who are punished for their crimes. Likewise it has been decreed, that for catechumens who die without the redemption of baptism, in like manner neither be commemoration made in the oblation, nor the office of psalm-singing be expended.”

Gennadius, presbyter of Marseilles, in the book On Ecclesiastical Dogmas (which is wrongly inscribed to Augustine), reckons among the Christian dogmas a decree which seems to exclude all catechumens — except those who died in martyrdom — not only from the ecclesiastical suffrages, but also from the felicity of eternal life, in these plain words: “WE BELIEVE the way of salvation to be for the baptized only; but we believe no catechumen — although he has died in good works — to have eternal life, martyrdom excepted, wherein the whole sacrament of baptism is fulfilled.” The divine Ambrose, whom all the theologians follow especially in this passage, judges that for all catechumens, migrating [dying] even without baptism and without martyrdom, the entrance of perpetual beatitude lies open — provided that the will of baptism, and the zeal of living piously, have not been lacking to them. For indeed, in the oration which he delivered at the funeral of Valentinian Augustus, he addresses his sisters, the queens, with these sayings: “BUT I hear that you grieve, because Valentinian did not receive the sacraments of baptism. Tell me, what else is there in you but the will, but the petition [asking]? And yet he also had long ago this vow, that before he came into Italy he might be initiated, and he signified that he would shortly be baptized by me. Has he not, then, the grace which he desired? He has not [that] which he asked for? And where is that [text]: ‘The just man, by whatever death he be overtaken, his soul shall be in refreshment’? And a little below: ‘Or is it this that moves [you], that the mysteries were not solemnly celebrated? Then neither are the martyrs crowned, if they be catechumens; for they are not crowned, if they be not initiated. But if they are washed in their own blood, then his piety and his will have washed him also.’” Thus Ambrose. The divine Thomas [Aquinas], in the third volume of the Summa, question 68, thus interprets Gennadius: that he says catechumens are not by that decree utterly barred from the kingdom of heaven, but for a while retarded from its entrance, until they be expiated in the purgatorial [fire] of the flames, and freed from the filth and the penalties of past crimes — which, in the baptized, the water of baptism washes away; but in the unbaptized martyrs, the shedding of blood cleanses.