Diggerdomer,
I originally posed the question to find out where I need to go to get the official teaching on the subject.
It was Archbishop Lawrence Khai of the Archdiocese of Thare Non Seng, Thailand who I served as his American Secretary who told me that baptismal water must be pure and that holy water cannot be used for baptism because it must contain at least some of the preservative salt. The reason for the salt is symbolic of the preservation of Eternal Life which Holy Water helps to bring about.
Since my intentions are to address a pastor on this, I felt I need the official documentation on this. Since I have not been able to get it here, I will look further in other places.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Part of the confusion here may be temporal - I donāt know just how long ago the archbishop told you about this, since sufficiently long ago salt would have been a required part of blessing holy water. But precluding any rather odd liturgical exception for his corner of East Asia, His Excellency was simply wrong about not being able to use holy water for baptism. A translation of the older Roman Ritual can be found here, and it spells out clearly that holy water is required for baptism under normal circumstances:
- The water for solemn baptism is that which has been blessed on the preceding vigil of Easter, and carefully preserved in a clean font to keep it pure. If new baptismal water is to be blessed, the old should be poured into the sacrarium in the sacristy, or preferably the sacrarium of the baptistery.
- If the baptismal water has so diminished that it is foreseen it will not suffice, unblessed water may be added even repeatedly, but in lesser quantity than the blessed each time this is done. If it becomes contaminated or has leaked out or in any way is deficient, the pastor will see to it that the font is thoroughly cleansed and replenished with fresh water, and proceed to bless it according to the form given below.
That form of
blessing includes the infusion of blessed salt, which tanks the argument that holy water cannot be used because of its salt content. The current code of canons is explicit in maintaining the requirement of holy water (
can. 853), which similarly disproves the assertion that holy water may not be used, although modern holy water need not contain salt.
The real hang-up, however, seems to turn on his contention that baptism must be administered with āpureā water. While a quick scan through the canons didnāt turn up the money quote I was looking for, the same traditional Ritual includes the phrase just before the 2 paragraphs quoted above:
- First of all a pastor will understand that since the matter for this sacrament is real natural water, no other liquid may be used.
As you can see, the requirement is not that water be āpure,ā as in some form of water distilled of all but its hydrogen and oxygen, but rather that water be ārealā and ānatural.ā Clearly ocean water is both real and natural, despite its salt content, so the mere presence of salt is not an issue. Rather, this requirement is meant to forestall questions about using substances other than water on the basis of their āwater content.ā For instance, some might argue that one can baptize with beer, not because beer in itself is suitable matter but because beer
contains water, which is the appropriate matter for the sacrament. But beer is not natural water; it is something made by combining water with other substances such that the result is no longer considered water itself. Clearly the requirement of real, natural water is not going to forestall all nitpicking about the exact point when a substance ceases to be water and starts to be some other liquid (how much Kool-Aid do you have to add before water ābecomesā Kool-Aid?), but it does retain a āduck testā for the matter for baptism. So, if I put a glass of this in front of you and said it was a glass of water, would you believe me? Would you, according to normal usage of the term, call this liquid water? If not, you donāt have valid matter.
