How do Catholics interpret the meaning of John 3:5 where Jesus says that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven a person has to be “born of water”?

I am trying to establish whether early church fathers such as Irenaeus and Justin Martyr understood the expression “born of water” in John 3:5 to mean water baptism. Are there any writings up to and including the ante-Nicene church fathers that support the view that a person has to be baptised in water in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven? [This article](https://www.gotquestions.org/born-of-water.html) presents two views of what John 3:5 means. One is that “born of water” refers to physical birth and that is how Nicodemus interpreted the words of Jesus. He questioned how such a thing could happen to a grown person. Jesus said that a person had to be “born of water and the Spirit”. >The other perspective is that “born of water and the Spirit” refers to spiritual cleansing. The re-birth, or the new birth, which means to be “born again”, is a spiritual rebirth. Whereas people once-born have physical life, a person twice-born has eternal life (John 3:15–18, 36; 17:3; 1 Peter 1:23). **How does the Catholic Church interpret the expression “born of water”?**