ACC ~ Mark 10 v13

WHO IS EXEMPT FROM REPENTENCE?

AUGUSTINE: When any people, you see, who are already of an age to make free decisions of will, approach the sacraments of the faithful, they cannot begin the new life unless they repent of the old. It’s only babies that are exempt from this kind of repentance when they are baptized; after all they are not yet capable of making free choices.

However, the faith of those who present them for baptism can avail them for sanctification and the remission of original sin; thus whatever defilement of wrongdoing they may have contracted through others, of whom they have been born, they can be purged of it through the interrogation of these others and the replies they give. SERMON 351.2. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 0284, 351.39.1537.13; WSA 3 10:120. In Augustine’s days, the baptismal rite included the interrogation of those to be baptized about the faith. When the infants were baptized, their parents or godparents answered the questions for them.

Mk