Did circumcision remove original sin like baptism, and are all the Holy Innocents in heaven?
A viewer asks whether the Holy Innocents are shown in heaven only because they were martyrs, whether circumcision functioned like baptism for infants who died before the age of reason, and what about the girls.
Answer
The Holy Innocents are innocent as to actual sin, being under the age of reason, which the Church puts at about seven. As to original sin, although baptism was instituted as the formal sacrament for its removal, the grace of Christ's atonement could be applied to people of the Old Testament so they too were justified without baptism; baptism became required only once Christ instituted it. That is why Paul argues that Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, in Romans 4, which also shows circumcision was not the sacrament that removed original sin. There is a mistake on this point in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which says circumcision removed original sin; it cannot, or Paul's argument fails, and besides, girls were not circumcised, so it could not be the universal remedy. The girls, like Abraham, were justified by the grace of God received informally. Does that mean all the slaughtered innocents went to heaven? We cannot say that; probably a good majority, but it is not our prerogative to determine who is saved, only God's.