Disposal of Baptismal Water

[jimrob]

I was always taught that water from infant baptisms should go to earth - usually by pouring it down the piscina, and that holy water used for blessings stoups and aspersion should be separately blessed and reserved. I have discovered that the sacristan at my church recycles the baptismal water by adding it to the holy water supply. Quite apart from hygiene considerations, this strikes me as being the same abuse that caused St Edmund of Abingdon and Canterbury to order that all baptismal fonts in England should have a lockable cover.

I can’t find any pronouncement on the subject from Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. Can anyone tell me whether this practice is widespread, forbidden - or both.

 

[stbruno]

We recycle ours as well.

 

[jimrob]

I’ve had a comment from another liturgical source who says that baptismal water has a different status to “ordinary” (lustral) holy water and the two should not be mixed. He thinks baptismal water should only be used for baptisms - the exception being when the priest sprinkles the people with newly blessed baptismal water following the renewal of baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil service.

 

[jpjd]

I have discovered that the sacristan at my church recycles the baptismal water by adding it to the holy water supply. Quite apart from hygiene considerations…

I’m not sure there are hygiene considerations if your priest baptizes by pouring. The only thing that would touch the water is the rim and side of the cup, and those parts would touch nothing. So the water would stay clean.

I wasn’t aware that baptismal water had any special status beyond any other holy water.

 

[jimrob]

I’m not sure there are hygiene considerations if your priest baptizes by pouring. The only thing that would touch the water is the rim and side of the cup, and those parts would touch nothing. So the water would stay clean.

The mechanism used in England and Wales (it may well be different in othe provinces) is that the baptismal water is contained in the font in a removable bowl. The priest baptises by taking some of the water in a jug or cockle shell and pouring it over the head of the child so it returns to the bowl.

I wasn’t aware that baptismal water had any special status beyond any other holy water.

Different ceremonies are used for blessing baptismal water and holy (lustral) water. Lustral water has salt added to it. This helps to stop bacterial growth originating from fingers being dipped into it. Baptismal water has holy oils added to it. If you take unsalted water that has been poured over babies’ heads, store it for a few days in a warm sacristy then use it in the asperges, you have a recipe for a Legionnaires disease outbreak.

 

[stbruno]

The mechanism used in England and Wales (it may well be different in othe provinces) is that the baptismal water is contained in the font in a removable bowl. The priest baptises by taking some of the water in a jug or cockle shell and pouring it over the head of the child so it returns to the bowl.

Different ceremonies are used for blessing baptismal water and holy (lustral) water. Lustral water has salt added to it. This helps to stop bacterial growth originating from fingers being dipped into it. Baptismal water has holy oils added to it. If you take unsalted water that has been poured over babies’ heads, store it for a few days in a warm sacristy then use it in the asperges, you have a recipe for a Legionnaires disease outbreak.

No oil is present in our baptismal water at all. The Holy oils are placed on the one to be baptized, first on the breastbone and also on the head, never put into the water.
Salt is not used any longer.