Case 5. A Convert from Judaism

Rebecca, born of Jewish parents, had been entrusted by them to nuns to be educated in a convent. Now sixteen years of age and about to leave the convent the next year when her education was finished, she asked Titius, a regular priest, to receive her into the Church. Titius found her well instructed in the Catholic faith and fully persuaded of its truth, but her parents utterly unwilling that she should publicly embrace the Catholic religion. Titius, however, does not know whether in these circumstances he ought to grant her prayers, at least so that she may become a Catholic secretly. Hence it is asked:

1. Who is the subject of Baptism?

2. Can children under parental authority be baptized against their parents’ will?

3. If a child of infidels or non-Catholics is baptized, what must be guarded concerning that child’s education?

4. What is to be said of the case?

The first question was answered above, p. 103 and the second, p. 104.

3. If a child of infidel or non-Catholic parents be baptized, what should be done about its education?

Means should be taken to secure the child’s education in the Catholic faith. With a view to this the First Council of Westminster (d. XVI, n. 6), decreed: “ A priest can baptize infants born of non-Catholic parents born, provided that consent is had that they are to be educated in the true religion and that they have a Catholic godfather or godmother.” The Holy Office has more than once replied to questions on the point that unless those who are offered for Baptism are in danger of death it is not lawful to baptize them if they are to be left under the care and education of their infidel parents. Thus on March 15, 1770, the following answer was given: “ It is not lawful to confer Baptism on children offered by both infidel parents, whenever the same infants, after receiving Baptism, are to be left under the power and education of those same infidel parents.”¹

1 Bucceroni, Enchiridion Morale, p. 109.

4. The case. Rebecca should not be received unless she can publicly profess and practise the Catholic faith. She should be told that there would be no difficulty in receiving her if she could get her father’s consent. Even if she can not get her father’s consent to her reception into the Church directly, if a place in a Catholic family or amid Catholic surroundings could be provided for her, and her father agreed to her accepting the place, she might then be received at once. If she is under the necessity of returning to her father’s house and living under his authority, and if she can not get his consent to her becoming a Catholic, her reception should be put off" till she becomes her own mistress. The danger of perversion, of scandal, of complaints against convents, in general render immediate reception unadvisable in these circumstances. She should be taught how she may preserve her good dispositions by prayer, leading a good life, reading good books, etc., until such time as she can be received into the Church.