Is a Baptized Doll a Sacramental?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Natasha95
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
N

Natasha95

Guest
When I was 5 years old, I brought a doll to church with me, and before Mass I asked the priest to Baptize it. He did, and now I’m wondering if the doll would be considered a sacramental.

I was really young, so I don’t remember if it was a real Baptism or if he was just humoring me, but let’s assume it was real.
 
He was humoring you. Even a blessing for a doll does not make it a sacramental any more than a blessing for pets makes them a sacramental.

'Cause if it did, then God has alot of explaining to do about what His “sacramental” did to my carpet.🤣
 
Natasha95 said:
I was really young, so I don’t remember if it was a real Baptism or if he was just humoring me
Click to expand...
Natasha,

It couldn’t have been “real”, since it wasn’t a person. Sacraments are only for living humans.

Now, as to your question: the blessing itself was a sacramental, not the doll that was blessed. (After all, we bless our food before we eat it, and that blessing is a sacramental!).

The purpose of sacramentals, according to the Catechism, is “prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it.” If that blessing helped you, as a five-year-old, come to terms with your own baptism, and helped you understand what it did (and does) for you, then that blessing – as a sacramental – helped you cooperate with the grace you received in baptism!
 
It’s not baptized, for the same reason that humans who are dead can’t be baptized-- sacraments are for the living.

LDS differ from Catholics in that they have a thing called posthumous baptism or “proxy baptism”. For example, remember all the brouhaha about Mormons trying to posthumously baptize Anne Frank after agreeing in 1995 to not try to proxy-baptize Jewish Holocaust victims.

For Catholics, however, the sacraments-are-for-the-living determination frequently comes into play with stillborn babies. Some priests will baptize them if there’s even the slightest chance of a little life still remaining, or will say no if the babies are very clearly dead at birth.

What is the purpose of Baptism? It’s entrance into the faith community. It’s asking for the grace of Christ to live out a life of faith in action. It’s the Gateway to Life in the Spirit. The Catechism says it frees us from sin; we are reborn as Sons of God; we become members of Christ; we are incorporated into the Church; we are made sharers in her Mission.

Dolls, like the dead, don’t live out a life of faith in action, or share in the Mission of the Church. Your priest was being very sweet to a little girl, instead of trying to get into theological nuance with a 5yo. 🙂
 
There should be a law against priests baptizing dolls.

Dan
 
Gorgias said:
There is!

c. 1379… 😉
Click to expand...
🤨

1379 The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be located in an especially worthy place in the church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

I think you mean something else.
 
Canon 1379. Well, the canon lawyer in me would respond by saying no one would actually think that the priest was simulating a Sacrament: simulation requires the outward appearance of actually performing the Sacrament in question. That was not the case here. Nobody thought this was an actual baptism, except, perhaps, for the infant (the person under 7 years old) who was in attendance.

Dan
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
He was humoring you. Even a blessing for a doll does not make it a sacramental any more than a blessing for pets makes them a sacramental.

'Cause if it did, then God has alot of explaining to do about what His “sacramental” did to my carpet.🤣
Click to expand...
Well, your sacramental said “you do it to me, I do it to your carpet. Now we’re even!”
 
acanonlawyer said:
That was not the case here. Nobody thought this was an actual baptism, except, perhaps, for the infant (the person under 7 years old) who was in attendance.
Click to expand...
True.

However, a priest who thought he was doing a ‘nice thing for a little girl’ might do well to be reminded that, when she found out what really happened, she’d wonder “why did he ‘simulate’ a sacrament?”, especially if it was said to him with a bit of a scowl… 😉
 
Thanks for the replies. This was an interesting discussion lol. It makes sense that it wasn’t a real Baptism, but I still have the doll, and I hope it’s at least blessed. If anything, it’s a good memory, and he was a good priest (he transferred shortly after and then we moved, so I haven’t seen him since then).
 
I also hope none of you think I’m an idiot. I went to Catholic school for 13 years and did really well in theology. There are just questions I never thought to ask.
 
Natasha95 said:
I also hope none of you think I’m an idiot. I went to Catholic school for 13 years and did really well in theology. There are just questions I never thought to ask.
Click to expand...
Nah, a tad immature to hang on to something silly from youth, but not an idiot. I think these questions come up from time to time. Your priest likely gave your little doll a blessing and while you don’t have to keep it, it’s a nice memory and would be nice to pass on.
 
I think it might be a sacrilege to baptize something that is not human. But I think he probably blessed it with holy water instead so that it seemed like it was a baptism.
 
Last edited:
nodito said:
40.png
Xanthippe_Voorhees:
Nah, a tad immature to hang on to something silly from youth, but not an idiot.
Click to expand...
It’s not immature to hang on to a keepsake from childhood. Have you nothing sentimental from your own?
Click to expand...
Immature to hang on to the idea the toy was baptized. I told her to keep the doll.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top