[Destro]

As far as I understand it the original sin is the fall of Adam - we who come from Adam live under the consequences of their original sin (not ours). Think of it as a landlord kicking out unruly tenants but will invite them back in if they agree to behave by the rules. Baptism is an initiation ritual - only after baptism can sins be forgiven. We are not painted guilty by original sin only live in the world created as a result of that original sin. Christ was the way to correct Adam and Eve's error. The way of reconciliation between God and the offspring of Adam and Eve.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Baptism is an initiation ritual - only after baptism can sins be forgiven.

This was the position of Pelagius and Julian. They were both excommunicated for this heresy.

Original Sin is the absence of sanctifying grace in the soul at conception and birth. Baptism remits this fault, which is not personal, but is communicated from Adam by natural generation, by infusing the newborn with the life of God. It is not an empty ritual.

If sin is ontologically to be void of the life of God, then a newborn has sin, because we are not born into the world connected to the Lord. If remission of sin is a process whereby the life of God is infused into the soul, either for the first time in Baptism, or again in Confession, then a newborn has this original sin remitted by the Sacrament of Baptism.