Dear Matthew,

I know that you are not yet a Catholic but I cannot help but say first off welcome to the Catholic Church if you indeed do decide to join.  The reason why the Catholic Church baptizes infants is because infants are born straight off with original sin, original sin does NOT wait until the age of reason.  Under normal circumstances Baptism with water is required for the grace of salvation, and so the Church teaches that infants must be baptized "within the first weeks after birth."(Baptism for Children, n.8.3, except in danger of death)

I'm assuming that your friend is coming from a Fundamentalist Protestant tradition, so here's a look at why we believe that Baptism is required for salvation using Scripture.  The first verse usually mentioned is John 3:5, where Jesus says that "no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."  Catholics understand Jesus to be referring to Baptism here, which is the same as what the Tradition of Christianity has believed all the way back to before the Gospels were written.  (I'll provide the cite for that a little later)  Since this verse contradicts the Protestant belief of salvation by grace through faith alone, Protestants had a serious problem and therefore had to come up with an "alternative" interpretation of this verse.  To do that, they changed "of water and Spirit" to "by the water in the mother's womb and then also by having a born-again experience".  But when you go back to verse three we see that Jesus is answering the question "how are we born from above", and so when taken in context with the VERY NEXT CHAPTER we see the answer where Jesus starts guess what...  baptizing.

Nowhere at all in the Bible will you find that only adults are baptized.  There are verses that say thousands of people were baptized, and entire households were baptized (Acts 2:41, 16:15,31,33, 1 Cor 1:16) You will not find any case of baptism in Scripture where it is mentioned "except the infants".  So the idea of infant baptism definitely does NOT go against Scripture.

I also want to take a look at the first letter of Peter, verse 3:21 where Peter mentions that not only does Baptism save us, but also that Baptism was prefigured in the flood with Noah, in which eight people were also saved by water, as we now are in Baptism.

Backing up a bit to Colossians 2:11-12 we see Paul writing that Baptism replaces circumcision and becomes the "circumcision of Christ".  Since in the Old Covenant circumcision was done on infants, Protestants should expect to see some writing that the new circumcision of Christ (baptism) is NOT for infants at all but rather adults only.  It's not there.

Although we won't see in Scripture an actual case of an infant being baptized by name, we know that the apostles did in fact baptize infants because of the writings of the fathers of the early church.  My favorite is from Origen: "The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants." (Commentaries on Romans, 5:9)  I know your Protestants have a hard time accepting this but it is an actual historical text that can be looked up in any theological library or any other large library.  It by FAR outdates any Protestant claims written later that Christians began baptizing their infants centuries after the time of Christ out of fear.

Finally, to address your concern that baptism could wait until the age of accountability: the Catholic Church REQUIRES, (no, not suggests) but REQUIRES that the parents and sponsors consent for the child and then make a commitment to follow-up by raising the child in the Catholic Faith.  If this commitment is not present, then baptism is to be delayed. (BFC, n.3, Canon Law n.868)

If I could conclude by making a personal note to you Matthew that if you do decide to enter the Catholic Church then you can expect unfortunately to be bombarded by your Protestant friends with questions like these and other attacks on the Catholic Church.  Be assured that there isn't anything that he can say that hasn't already been said before and written about extensively.  The Catholic Church is the true Church founded by Jesus Christ in Scripture, and there is NOTHING in the Teaching of the Church that contradicts Scripture.  In fact the canon of scripture CAME from the Catholic Church, and it is the Catholic Church that has preserved Scripture for 2,000 years.  So if your friend were to ever corner you on something I would still highly encourage you to look to the Church for answers, do a quick search on the Internet for catholic tracts, look in your books, or even try me again because I've heard it all.

Thanks for writing,

Mr. Slavek