Question Five: On the Subject of Baptism

S. Th. III, q. 68, a. 1.

142. The subject of Baptism is every and only man as wayfarer, not yet baptized, whether infant or adult (can. 745, § 1). - It is said:

1. every man, because Baptism is necessary for all men by necessity of means for salvation, or the ultimate end of eternal life (n. 133); whence every man is to be baptized, even one who has already been justified ex opere operantis by Baptism of the Spirit, or who had been miraculously formed and had not contracted original sin;

2. only man as wayfarer, because the sacraments befit men as wayfarers, but not angels or separated souls (n. 91);

3. not yet baptized, because Baptism can be repeated neither licitly nor validly, since it imprints an indelible character;

4. whether an infant, who does not yet have the use of reason, or an adult, who has attained sufficient use of reason. Moreover in adults, for validity there is required an intention at least habitual and implicit, and for liceity, besides this, several other dispositions; - but in children no disposition is required, and similarly in the perpetually insane who have never had the use of reason, because in this they are equated with children.

Hence can. 745, § 2: "1. Under the name of little children or infants come... those who have not yet attained the use of reason, and to them are reckoned the insane from infancy, in whatever age they are constituted;

2. But those are considered adults who enjoy the use of reason, and this is enough for each one by his own motion of soul to seek Baptism and to be admitted to it."

In particular one must speak of adults, children, children of non-Catholics, unborn children, abortive fetuses, monsters, and the doubtfully baptized who are to be rebaptized.