Baptism Question

[seaching20]

I know this is sort of a common question, but I couldn’t find an answer when I searched.

I know that anyone can baptize under emergency circumstances with water and the Trinitarian formula. However, if someone (a layperson) baptizes a willing adult with all the other necessary stuff and there is NO emergency, is the baptism invalid or just illicit?

If its invalid, why do non-Catholic ecclesiastical communities get a special pass? I was baptized by an Anglican priest when I was 18. He was not part of the priesthood (Anglican orders are invalid) and I was in not danger when I was baptized, but the Catholic Church recognizes this baptism as valid.

Thanks,
S

 

[otjm]

1. A non-emergency baptism by a lay person would probably be illicit, but not invalid. The Church has the right to regulate the Sacraments, and its regulations that baptism ordinarily be done by a priest are there for several reasons. To begin with, the priest is the ordinary minister or the Sacraments in a parish (which ultimately the bishop is, the priests are deputed because he is not able to be everywhere at all times). From that flows the fact that the Sacraments are not matters soley to the individual, but the the Church and thus to the community, and the priest is the head of the community. There is also the fact that baptism is the first of the three initial or rite of entrance sacraments, alsong with the Eucharist and Confirmation; if the baptism is not recorded, how is anyone to know that it occured, that it occured properly done, and the baptized thus able to avail themselves of the other Sacraments?

Other ecclesial communities are not bound by our laws; however, it certainly helps where there are adequate records for when someone chooses to join the Church; the alternative is a conditional baptism where we can find no record.