Case 6. What Baptism Implies

The following case was proposed in Pastoralia, Jan. 1901.

On a certain Sunday a woman with a Protestant godmother brought an infant to the Catholic church to be baptized. Questioned by the parish priest, she said that she and her husband had been brought up in the Catholic faith but no longer professed it, since one religion was as true as another. Their four other children had indeed been baptized in the Catholic church, but now attended the public school (Board-school), and she was unwilling to send them to the Catholic school. She had brought this infant to the Catholic church to be baptized because the others had been baptized there, and it would not be baptized in the Protestant church or elsewhere unless it were baptized by the parish priest. Hence the parish priest asks:

1. Ought he to have baptized the infant?

2. Since a Catholic sponsor could not be procured, was it lawful for him to admit the Protestant godmother?

3. Otherwise, ought he to have baptized without a sponsor and with the ceremonies?

4. In that case, what is to be said of the responses in the Ritual, and who ought to have held the infant while it was being baptized?

1. Ought the priest to have baptized the child?

The Baptism would indeed have been valid, but it may be doubted whether the priest should administer Baptism in such cases. The child is in no danger of death, both parents have fallen away from the Faith and no longer profess to be Catholics, the mother openly asserting that one religion is as good as another. The other children are going to a non-Catholic school, and there is no probability that this one will be brought up a Catholic. Under these circumstances the priest should not baptize the child unless he can in some way secure a Catholic education for it.

2. As a Catholic sponsor could not be procured, could a Protestant be admitted in such a case?

No, a Protestant may never be admitted as a sponsor in Baptism.

3. Ought Baptism to be given without sponsor and with the ceremonies?

The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, April 1, 1816, answered that if proper sponsors can not be had, Baptism which is necessary must be given without sponsors who are not necessary.¹

1 Collectanea S. C. de P. F., n. 618.

4. In that case who should make the answers in the Ritual, and who should hold the infant while it is being baptized?

The priest himself might make the answers, and the mother or any one else might hold the child, for that act alone would not make her a sponsor.