The author of the article attempted to present the ecclesial dimension of the funeral of a child dying at a prenatal stage of development. The Second Vatican Council with subsequent liturgical and legal-canonical reform is a clear census crowning the centuries-long period of contesting the church funeral of a non-baptized child and initiating a new pastoral practice, allowing the liturgical burial of a child as part of a full-fledged funeral rite with a separate mass form for this occasion. Changes in pastoral practice during the Second Vatican Council correlated with the gradually increasing changes in theologians' positions on the controversial issue of salvation of deceased children without water baptism. The Church’s Teaching Office has...