Q. Regarding a recent reply about the salvation of souls of aborted babies, why wouldn’t these children be considered martyrs of our indifferent and sinful times and receive Baptism of Blood? What greater martyrdom can there be than being hacked to death with the consent of the very person who should nurture and protect you – your mother? I think they are the holiest of the Holy Innocents. – C.S., New York

A. Having been very active in the Pro-Life movement since 1974, and having lamented the brutal deaths just in the United States of some 40 million unborn babies, we certainly empathize with you and your views. These tiny, defenseless, voiceless members of the human family have been sacrificed on the altar of convenience, and a bloody sacrifice it has been! But are these children martyrs and candidates for Baptism of Blood?

The common definition of a martyr is one who chooses to suffer and die rather than renounce Christ, His Church, or some revealed truth of the Catholic religion. The Church has always taught that an unbaptized person who dies for the Christian Faith receives a baptism of blood that remits all sins and grants the person immediate entrance into Heaven. The term became part of our vocabulary in the early centuries of the Church when those seeking to become Catholics (catechumens) were martyred before they could be baptized with water.

The key requirement for martyrdom, and for Baptism of Blood, is that one must die for Christ or for His teachings. The Holy Innocents are called martyrs because they died in King Herod’s attempt to kill the Christ Child. But the tens of millions who have died in the abortion chambers of America and the world did not die for Christ and cannot be considered martyrs in the strict sense of the word. Nor would it seem that they are eligible for Baptism of Blood.

We can do no more than to plead with Christ, who made known to St. Faustina the oceans of divine mercy with which He is prepared to flood our sinful world, and trust that the One who is Divine Mercy Himself will find a way for the souls of aborted babies to attain salvation.