Conditional Baptism

[presbyter]

.......the question, which is whether a child is capable of grave sin at all......

A good question that I shall avoid trying to answer!

BUT -

1. All the children from Year 3 upwards in our parish primary school love to "go to Confession" (and 75 % of them are not Catholics - with a fair percentage of that 75 % being non-baptised and of other faiths. I just have to remember those who are Catholic - sacramental absolution - and those who are not - so-called absolution prayer from the Penitential Rite at Mass in the first person singular) We celebrate Penance Rite 2 once a term and the individual confessions take two or three days! Nobody dragoons the children into coming - it's voluntary.

I think giving children a good experience of Confession is a more beneficial pastoral strategy that simply asking whether or not they need to go, or are capable of grave sin. Let them get things off their chest, whether it be grave matter or not. It's all a part of their formation in a life of faith and who knows how this early experience of God's mercy will benefit them in later life.

2.

Also, and more fundamentally, conditional baptism must be followed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation (in case the original baptism was valid) before receiving Holy Communion

That is completely cuckoo, if true. No other person, whether being initiated or not, has to receive the sacrament of reconciliation before receiving Communion unless it is definitively known that they are in a state of grave sin.

I know what you mean - but giving a person the experience of a "good Confession" - whether they truly need it or not - is no bad thing. Perhaps I should have written - giving a person a "good experience" of Confession - that's better!

3. A different question is whether or not a person who is not baptised can receive the effects of sacramental absolution.
I'll avoid that one too, except to say that there are plenty of case studies in the Gospels to ponder over.

[markyboy]

I've read this thread with interest, and just thought I'd add my own experience. I was received into the Church some 33 years ago on Holy Thursday evening, aged 20, by an old-fashioned Irishman, now sadly gone ahead.
I duly presented my certificate of baptism from my infant Anglican 'do', which he said didn't count as Anglicans only sprinkle (!). He then proceeded to half-drown me in ice-cold holy water kneeling on the floor of the sacristy, before sending me into an unheated confessional with a chain-smoking mission priest who led me through confession in Latin (with useful hints of suitable sins translated); I then had to stand in our (then) draughty church and recite the extra lines at the end of the Nicean Creed having sat damply through 30 minutes of Mission sermon. (I'm thankful he didn't then try to wash my feet!)
My sponsor and I laugh about my near-drowning every year, and I've sometimes wondered if he was going for the 'set' by risking my pneumonia.
Incidentally I opted for Confirmation later with our then bishop, who gave a near slap on the cheek.