Baptisms, by authority?

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leschorndad

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Although this is no suprise to me, The Catholic church does not accept “LDS Baptisms” as being authoritive.

What I am suprised about is that The Catholic chruch does accept many if not all Protestant faiths baptisms as authoritive.

This boggles my mind. Basically I could go to a Seminary get a piece of paper that says I have the knowledge to minister, start to baptize and it will most likely be recognized by the Catholic church if my Protestant faith gets big enough.

I was under the impression that authority to act in the name of The Lord was very important in the Catholic church. This seems contrary to the above scenario.

Please explain and enlighten me on this. I would like to know if this is totally off base or if I am right then why? Please no flamers or people to tell me how terrible my religion is. I will ignore you and you certianly will not “win my soul back” by attempting to tell me how terrible and incorrect my faith is, so please keep it on topic and lets discuss one thing at a time.

Your Brother in Christ,

John
 
the priest or bishop is the ordinary minister of baptism, but anyone may baptize if matter and form are correct: water baptism by pouring or immersion and the trinitarian formula. The reason LDS, some “oneness” pentecostals, JWs and others are not accepted is that they deny the trinity, some to do not perform true baptism only “dedication”, some don’t use water etc.
 
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puzzleannie:
the priest or bishop is the ordinary minister of baptism, but anyone may baptize if matter and form are correct: water baptism by pouring or immersion and the trinitarian formula. The reason LDS, some “oneness” pentecostals, JWs and others are not accepted is that they deny the trinity, some to do not perform true baptism only “dedication”, some don’t use water etc.
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Interesting, so are you saying that its based on the “Concept” of the Trinity and authority actually doesn’t mean anything?

LDS Form = Immersion (I believe that this is accepted by Catholics), and the prayer is stated in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Could you please help me find a specific statement as to this by a Catholic authority. All I have found on the web thus far is conjecture by those who do not have any real form of authority.

Thanks,

John
 
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leschorndad:
Interesting, so are you saying that its based on the “Concept” of the Trinity and authority actually doesn’t mean anything?

LDS Form = Immersion (I believe that this is accepted by Catholics), and the prayer is stated in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Could you please help me find a specific statement as to this by a Catholic authority. All I have found on the web thus far is conjecture by those who do not have any real form of authority.

Thanks,

John
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Hello John, welcome to the site.

Immersion is accepted by the Catholic Church.

I could not find a specific statement that talks about the Mormon and other religions baptisms. Maybe someone else can help with that. Here is a link to the part of the Catholic Catechism that talks about baptism.

scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a1.htm#I
 
OK,

Well if you do a keyword search on google. Type in mormon baptism catholic. You will find the references that I am talking about.

Actually I have decided that this whole thing doesn’t bother me. I mean the LDS faith believes that all new members must be baptized. This makes sense to me, b/c even when I was a Catholic I personally believed that Baptism must be done by an authority. John the Baptist was a special Prophet of God, he had the authority to Baptize, he did not give that authority to the general public. He even had to baptize Jesus, ‘to fufill all rightousness’ this proves that Baptism is absolutely critical in our salvation.

Thank you for the response, I would be happy to move forward with this topic with anyone who has some (name removed by moderator)ut.

Your Brother in Christ,

John
 
your reply poster did not deny authority, anyone who baptizes does so under the authority of the Catholic church, instituted by Christ, who gave us the sacraments, including baptism, as the physical and spiritual means of effecting his grace and presence among men on earth. Even if the one baptizing is himself not perfectly in union with the Church, if he performs the actions and ritual the Church prescribes, with the intent of effecting what the Church intends, it is a true baptism. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptims, one God who is Father of all. Christ is present to all, through the existence and continual celebration of the Paschal Mystery, on the part of the Church he founded, his mystical body. Even those who, through no fault of their own, through ignorance or whatever cause have not the opportunity to hear and accept the fullness of his message and join the Catholic Church, can receive his grace, but they do so only through the merits of Jesus Christ, mediated by his Church.
 
Leshorndad, here are a couple of web sites for you regarding the Catholic view on Mormon baptism and the validity thereof.

www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/MORMBAP/HTM

and

www.bringyou.to/apologetics/a37.htm

I see the difference in the Catholic definition of the Holy Trinity, and the LDS definition.

Catholics beleive in the Trinity, one God in three persons indivisible, the Father,Son, and Holy Spirit.

Even though the LDS church baptises in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the teaching is completely different. Mormons do not beleive in the Trinity, but in three seperate Gods.

Is it not true that Mormons reject the baptism of all non-Mormons, due to a lack of priesthood authority?
 
Even a pagan can baptize if they do so with the proper intent and understanding. The authority to baptize is God’s alone, and any human can act as the instrument when properly disposed. The question of authority is therefore irrelevant. Mormons simply aren’t properly disposed unless they are specifically baptizing with an understanding completely contridictory to their faith.
 
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