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Liturgy Q&A: Validity of Protestant Baptisms

Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy and sacramental theology and director of the Sacerdos Institute at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum university.

 Q: A document from the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith indicates that the use of “We (and possibly including a list of people present – parents, godparents, etc.) baptize you in the name of the Father …” is a change to the formula for the sacrament that results in an invalid baptism. Various conversations have ensued concerning baptisms by other ecclesial communities. The gist of the conversations is that there is potentially a multitude of invalid baptisms within the Protestant world and that some/many/most Protestants joining the Church need either a conditional baptism (out of fear that the wrong formula was used) or out of a belief that the wrong one was used and they need to be baptized (not conditionally). It is not hard to find examples of baptisms that have used such a formula. One example was what purported to be a Baptist baptism in either a creek or a lake: full dunking along with “We baptize you” and the normal formula following. This has caused a great deal of consternation among some Protestants who have recently joined the Church; they have sought, without success, to persuade a priest to give them a conditional baptism. Is there any way of telling whether the Church is going to hold that baptisms done by various ecclesial communities are invalid if their ministers (or elders or deacons, etc.) must baptize using the formula “I baptize …”? There are a lot of RCIA programs that could use guidance on applying the CDF document. — T.M., Keizer, Oregon

A: This important and well-articulated question is not easy to answer.

Praise the Lord

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