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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
I’ve often wondered, if a person who is non Christian or even a pagan, can they baptize someone in the name of the Trinity?

As far as the Catholic church is concerned, the answer is yes, provided they have the proper "intent". The proper intent is to intend to do what the Church does, that is, to administer Trinitarian Christian baptism.

Remember, the spiritual effects of a sacrament come from Christ, not from the minister of the sacrament, who is just an agent or intermediary. Neither does it come through the faith of the minister.

However, this gets tricky if the minister is, e.g., a Mormon or JW. Those sects use the correct words, but do not mean by them what the Church means (because they reject the Trinity), so they are assumed not to have the proper intent.

However, if someone were baptized by a Mormon, and had a signed letter from the Mormon indicating that he or she intended to administer orthodox Christian, Trinitarian baptism, I think it would hard to argue that that baptism was not valid.

50 posted on 05/17/2015 3:20:56 PM PDT by Campion
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To: Campion; mountainbunny

I did not know this was a Caucus thread, but I asked a legitimate question and I got legitimate answers.

Thank you all!


52 posted on 05/17/2015 10:33:47 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Some times you need more than six shots. Much more.)
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