Is This Heresy?

[Kamalayka]

I was thinking about heresy, and thought of a situation which I cannot determine to be heresy or not.

Suppose an unbaptized person knows that the Catholic Church is the true Church. However, he or she decides instead to get baptized in a Protestant church.

Would that be considered the mortal sin of heresy?

 

[ElizabethPH]

I was thinking about heresy, and thought of a situation which I cannot determine to be heresy or not.

Suppose an unbaptized person knows that the Catholic Church is the true Church. However, he or she decides instead to get baptized in a Protestant church.

Would that be considered the mortal sin of heresy?

I think a person must be baptized to commit heresy.

 

[PrayHarder]

Heresy is the adherence to a religious opinion contrary to Church doctrine. In other words, it’s putting words in the Church’s mouth. It would be heresy if he or she said something like, “The Catholic Church says that being baptized as a Protestant is the same as being baptized Catholic.”

I’m sure some sin is being committed if you are baptized in another faith just to get out of the duties and obligations that come with being Catholic. But there wasn’t a lot of context to the question so I don’t know what someone’s reason would be for deliberately saying “no” to the Catholic Church even if he/she truly believed that it is the true Church.

 

[Jacafamala]

I was thinking about heresy, and thought of a situation which I cannot determine to be heresy or not.

Suppose an unbaptized person knows that the Catholic Church is the true Church. However, he or she decides instead to get baptized in a Protestant church.

Would that be considered the mortal sin of heresy?

That would be a gravely serious sin. I think it’s more a sin of apostasy, because it’s a total rejection of the Church. But actually it’s even worse than apostasy if the person clearly understands that through Baptism in another church they’re rejecting the one true Church.

 

[Jesus_123]

Code of Canon Law

**Canon 849 **

Baptism, the gateway to the sacraments and necessary for salvation by actual reception or at least by desire, is validly conferred only by a washing of true water with the proper form of words.

Through baptism men and women are freed

from sin, are reborn as children of God, and, configured to Christ by an indelible character, are incorporated into the Church.

The Catholic church absolutely recognizes and honors baptisms that are validly conferred by other ecclesial Christian communities (which is the Church’s term for the “separated-brethren/children-of-God who are members of other solidly Christian denominations” as long as they use true water and the “Trinitarian Formula” which is to baptize "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". And it is forbidden by the Catholic Church to rebaptize such individuals as true Christian baptism **into the Body of Christ **can and needs to only happen once and is a once and for all time occurence. Where a baptism occurs . . . inside or outside of the Catholic Church is not a difficulty . . . as long as the integrity of the true Christian form and meaning of baptism is maintained and conferred.

Christian baptisms validly conferred outside the Catholic Church are completely valid and should in no way ever be equated with sin or heresy of any kind as long as they are accomplished in true belief and in true faith with true water and the Trinitarian Formula is used.

. . . all for Jesus+
. . . Sweet Spirit of our Holy God+
. . . instruct, guide and protect the Faith+
Praise be the Lord Jesus Christ!+​

 

[Jacafamala]

The Catholic church absolutely recognizes and honors baptisms that are validly conferred by other ecclesial Christian communities (which is the Church’s term for the “separated-brethren/children-of-God who are members of other solidly Christian denominations” as long as they use true water and the “Trinitarian Formula” which is to baptize "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". And it is forbidden by the Catholic Church to rebaptize such individuals as true Christian baptism into the Body of Christ can and needs to only happen once and is a once and for all time occurence. Where a baptism occurs . . . inside or outside of the Catholic Church is not a difficulty . . . as long as the integrity of the true Christian form and meaning of baptism is maintained and conferred.

Christian baptisms validly conferred outside the Catholic Church are completely valid and should in no way ever be equated with sin or heresy of any kind as long as they are accomplished in true belief and in true faith with true water and the Trinitarian Formula is used.

. . . all for Jesus+
. . . Sweet Spirit of our Holy God+
. . . instruct, guide and protect the Faith+
Praise be the Lord Jesus Christ!+​

Nobody here is questioning the validity of a Baptism by another denomination, as far as I can tell.

The question is, would it be sinful for a person who knows the Catholic Church is the one true Church established by Jesus Christ to go ahead and get baptized through another Church, anyway. I should think that the answer on this one is a definite “yes”. Because it would be a deliberate rejection of God’s truth.

People who are baptized by pastors in Protestant denominations, and do so in good faith with the best of intentions haven’t sinned.