Florida Catholic | When Is Baptism Invalid?

REFERENCE: Catechism - Nos. 1213 - 1284 | Code of Canon Law - Nos. 849-878

When is baptism invalid?

Published: 04.11.08

My dear friends,

At the end of February, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement saying a baptism administered “in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier” is not a baptism at all.

Because baptism is the first sacrament of Christian initiation, the use of an incorrect formula has tremendous repercussions on a person’s future sacramental life. “A person who has not received baptism cannot be admitted validly to the other sacraments,” states the Code of Canon Law (No. 842-1).

Judging from comments published in a recent issue of the Florida Catholic, many readers assumed — incorrectly, I think — that this Vatican directive referred primarily to those baptized in the Catholic Church, usually as infants.

It is more likely that the Vatican statement arose in response to a question raised by those working in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, since many of those seeking to enter the church at Easter come from other Christian churches.

Unless there is reason to believe otherwise, the Catholic Church accepts their baptisms as valid. That is why we use the term candidates — not catechumens — to refer to those baptized into one of the Christian denominations. That is why they are not “re-baptized” during the Easter Vigil, but merely asked to make a profession of faith before receiving the two other sacraments of initiation, Communion and confirmation.

Most mainstream Christian denominations use the baptismal formula that was handed down by the apostles and recorded at the end of the Gospel of Matthew: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

As long as that formula is used, along with water — either by sprinkling or immersion — the Catholic Church accepts baptisms in other Christian churches as valid, provided that the person baptizing has the intention of doing what the church does when it baptizes.

The use of different words, however, is a problem since “as we pray, so we believe.” The gender-neutral formula actually diminishes the vast mystery of the Trinity, which we define as “three persons in one God.”

Yes, God is creator, but he is more than that. He is Father to Jesus, who, as John’s Gospel tells us, was present “in the beginning.” Moreover, as we repeat every Sunday in the Creed, Jesus is not just the redeemer but “true God from true God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father, through (whom) all things were made.” The Holy Spirit is also more than the sanctifier; he is “the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son; with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified; he has spoken through the prophets.”

To reduce this unfathomable mystery to three “functions” in one God is to diminish the faith that was handed down by the apostles. Persons baptized using this formula, therefore, are not validly baptized.

Most Catholics, however, need not worry that they were invalidly baptized, since all priests are aware of what canon law states: “In celebrating the sacraments, the liturgical books approved by competent authority are to be observed faithfully; accordingly, no one is to add, omit, or alter anything in them on one’s own authority” (No. 846.1).

When is baptism invalid?

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