Baptism should not be deferred
By Cardinal Silvio Antoniano | 9 September 2026
Voice of the Family seeks to help Catholic parents whose children’s spiritual welfare is undermined by “relationships and sex education” classes in Catholic schools and by the impact of the sexual revolution which overwhelms the modern world. With parents in mind, over the next several months, we will be publishing extracts from the principal work of Cardinal Silvio Antoniano, On the Christian and Political Education of Youth, first published in 1584. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical on Christian Education (Divini Illius Magistri, 1929), called it Antoniano’s “Golden Treatise” and noted that St Charles Borromeo ordered it to be read in public to parents assembled in their churches.
Chapter 33
If the good father and the pious mother have often commended and offered their little son to God while he was in his mother’s womb, it is only right that since he was born and has come as a new pilgrim to this valley of tears, he should be presented as soon as possible to the holy temple of God and to the fountain of holy Baptism, so that he may be reborn more happily in water and spirit and in the world, and may be counted among the faithful people who, under the banner of the Cross, are fighting in Christ, so that he may be reborn more happily of water and spirit, and … placed in Christ, and may be numbered with the faithful people who, under the banner of the Cross, militate and war against the devil, against the world, and its pomps, and against the flesh, our perpetual and cruel enemies.
Therefore, fathers and mothers must be solicitous to have the creature baptised without delay, remembering the firm decree of the Saviour, that unless someone is reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Therefore, since there is no other way of health for little children except that of baptism, a grave sin is committed when the poor infants are left too long without the help of divine grace, and without the justification, which through Christ they achieve in the regeneration of baptism; so that no one should be so unwise, not to say so unmerciful, that for light-hearted and worldly purposes of celebrating, or waiting for friends, and the like, exposes to so much danger one of his dearest, and desired children, that by dying for some immediate accident they remain eternally excluded from the kingdom of God; especially since in that tender, and weak age the dangers are infinite, as the most learned book called the Roman Catechism [the Catechism of the Council of Trent] gravely warns everyone.
Besides this, children must not be baptised in private homes, except in case of necessity, but in the Church, the house of God, the place specifically designated for prayer and for the holy sacraments, where the presence of Christ our Lord is truly present in the most holy Eucharist, the assistance and custody of the Angels, the relics of the Saints, and their venerable images, and many other prerogatives, which the temple has dedicated, and consecrated to God, here also His divine Majesty dispenses with greater abundance His graces, and favours. And this is remembered in spite of some nobles of the world, who with a different spirit from the Centurion of the Gospel, do not deign to go to the house of Christ, but want Christ to go to their house.