unbaptized babies who die

from comment 63 here: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/12/signs-of-predestination-a-catholic-discusses-election/

Yes God’s universal desire for the salvation of men extends to babies. But what that entails for babies who die before reaching the age of reason, and how they might receive grace or respond to that grace, we do not know. We know that sanctifying grace and agape is necessary to enter heaven. We also know that babies are born into this world in a state of original sin (i.e. deprived of sanctifying grace andagape). Nevertheless, the Catholic Church does not teach that unbaptized infants who die before reaching the age of reason go to heaven, nor does it teach that they go to hell. It calls us to entrust them to the mercy of God.

As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,” allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism. (CCC, 1261)

from the same link, comment 65

 St. Augustine’s view was that babies who die unbaptized end up with a mild form of hell forever. That view stemmed directly from his conviction that original sin is personal culpa. Aquinas softened that by putting such babies in a permanent “limbo,” a place of purely natural happiness. That became the common doctrine until the mid-20th century. But in response to the Calvinist and Jansenist challenges, the Church came gradually to repudiate the underlying premise that original sin is personal culpa. See CCC §405. Once that happened, the rationale for a permanent limbo disappeared. The Pope does not believe there is such a thing.

 Of course limbo remains an opinion one can hold within the ambit of orthodoxy. But a few Catholic traditionalists, such as Fr. Brian Harrison, still hold that the existence of a permanent limbo as the sempiternal fate for unbaptized babies has been infallibly taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. For my response to that, see here. I also recommend Fr. Al Kimel’s treatment of the topic of limbo.

from the same link comment 67 in part:

 All that is why the Church has never condemned the speculations of theologians about how infants who die unbaptized might yet come to enjoy the beatific vision. What speculations? I quote from the Wikipedia article on “Limbo,” which is actually pretty good (footnotes and links omitted; emphasis added):

The Ecumenical Council of Florence (1442) spoke of baptism as necessary even for children and required that they be baptised soon after birth. This had earlier been affirmed at the local Council of Carthage in 417. The Council of Florence also stated that those who die in original sin alone go to hell. John Wycliffe’s attack on the necessity of infant baptism was condemned by another general council, the Council of Constance. The Council of Trent in 1547 explicitly stated that baptism (or desire for baptism) was the means by which one is transferred “from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

If adults could effectively be baptised through a desire for the sacrament when prevented from actually receiving it, some speculated that perhaps sacramentally unbaptised infants too might be saved by some waterless equivalent of ordinary baptism when prevented. Cajetan, a major 16th-century theologian, suggested that infants dying in the womb before birth, and so before ordinary sacramental baptism could be administered, might be saved through their mother’s wish for their baptism. Thus, there was no clear consensus that the Council of Florence had excluded salvation of infants by such extra-sacramental equivalents of baptism.

Through the 18th and 19th centuries, individual theologians (Bianchi in 1768, H. Klee in 1835, Caron in 1855, H. Schell in 1893) continued to formulate theories of how children who died unbaptised might still be saved. By 1952 a theologian such as Ludwig Ott could, in a widely used and well-regarded manual, openly teach the possibility that children who die unbaptised might be saved for heaven—though he still represented their going to limbo as the commonly taught opinion. In its 1980 instruction on children’s baptism the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed that “with regard to children who die without having received baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as indeed she does in the funeral rite established for them.” And in 1984, when Joseph Ratzinger, then Cardinal Prefect of that Congregation, stated that, as a private theologian, he rejected the claim that children who die unbaptised cannot attain salvation, he was speaking for many academic theologians of his background and training.

Thus in 1992, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, while affirming that “the Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude”, but also stating that “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments”, stated: “As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: ‘Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,’ allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.”

On April 22, 2007, the advisory body known as the International Theological Commission released a document, originally commissioned by Pope John Paul II, entitled “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptized.”[23]

and 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":

from 104 here http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/12/signs-of-predestination-a-catholic-discusses-election/

: I’m not sure how you can be sure that what Florence meant by infernum was the eternal fire of punishment rather than merely the underworld. If your interpretation were correct, then we would be obliged to infer that it’s at least possible that those who have never committed any actual sin in their lives are punished eternally. I know of no de fide doctrines that would support such a conclusion. Indeed, CCC §1037 says that for going to hell qua eternal punishment “a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end.” That is not the same as “original sin alone.” And that’s why I adopt the interpretation of Florence that I do.