ill provide what is needed for the seed of divine life planted in baptism to grow. Today, while the theoretical justifications for infant baptism remain valid, the conditions for its effective administration are realized less and less. The existence of a "very large number of baptized people who . . . are entirely indifferent to [their baptism] and not living in accordance with it" could have been predicted from the weaknesses in the circumstances in which the sacrament is being administered. Today, many of the babies being baptized in the Catholic Church will not grow up in an environment of active faith and example in their families, or their parishes, with which they will probably have only marginal, insignificant contact. Even 20 years ago there was something of a Christian environment and an "informal catechumenate" in many Catholic homes, particularly in ethnic Catholic neighborhoods and Catholic countries, but today that is less and less the case. The days when Western secular society was grounded in Christian principles are largely over, and the Catholic people who once had a supporting culture are rapidly being secularized by a powerful modern pagan culture. Religious instruction by itself is hardly ever effective in producing conversion, but six million American Catholic youth are not even receiving religious instruction. Those that are, even in Catholic schools. are usually much more influenced in life-style, values, and decisions by the world television. movies, books, universities. and so on) than by the church or even by their families. Is it not an abuse of the sacrament to baptize an infant when there may be little or no vital Christian commitment and life on the part of the parents, and little or no actual Christian community taking responsibility for the child being raised a Christian? Does a three-week course of preparation for parents and godparents really provide a means to conversion and to the construction of an...
