Will water-sensitive aliens be accommodated at baptism

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An alien sensitive to water wouldn’t really be able to exist on earth, there’s water literally everywhere. In the air, too. So even if they did arrive on earth they would need to be wearing spacesuits the whole time. It’d just be a weird situation.
 
Cacao_bearskin said:
So, if there is ever an alien discovered that is damaged by coming in contact with water (like the one in that movie “Signs”), Will it be ok to baptise the little baby aliens with something else like maybe sand that gets poured over their heads? I have heard that the Church says that all creatures, including extraterrestrials are welcome to join up and become Catholics. Just wondering and thinking ahead.
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If these aliens are not human, they cannot be baptized. End of story. No ifs, not buts.

Doesn’t matter if a Pope said it in some off the cuff comment. Non-humans are not subject to or entitled to the Christian sacramental economy. Any economy of salvation for them, if any, is between them and God.
 
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I think the larger question has been missed here: what if this hypothetical alien race is duocephalic - has 2 heads? Which one to use for Baptism?
 
I’m sorry if I’m derailing the thread, but I’ve been wondering since I read the OP whether such a scenario could exist outside science-fiction – do not scientists think that the presence of water would be an essential component for extraterrestrial life to develop ? If so, could there really be water-sensitive aliens, except from the odd allergic one ?

(In any case, please do not run this hypothesis by the parents I meet in baptism preparation classes. I get enough of “Little John/little Jane really hates getting his/her head wet, could you not baptize him/her without water?” as it is 😂)
 
I just hope people who start these threads put as much effort into thinking about their personal relationships with Jesus as they do about the possibility of water-sensitive aliens landing on earth.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I just hope people who start these threads put as much effort into thinking about their personal relationships with Jesus as they do about the possibility of water-sensitive aliens landing on earth.
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Sorry, I didn’t realize that a little levity and distraction during this incredibly stressful time posed a spiritual problem.
 
I’m never sure if these threads are intended as levity or trolling or a serious question.
We get questions about space alien baptisms, space alien abortions, space aliens as they relate to Scripture, etc. We get them pretty frequently.

If they are in Casual Discussion then I assume they’re a fun thread, but this one is in Catholic Living and the poster is fairly new, so I have no idea if the thread is a serious question, an attempt at humor, or some bored college student who is ruminating on this at 2 am.
 
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Cacao_bearskin said:
So, if there is ever an alien discovered that is damaged by coming in contact with water (like the one in that movie “Signs”), Will it be ok to baptise the little baby aliens with something else like maybe sand that gets poured over their heads? I have heard that the Church says that all creatures, including extraterrestrials are welcome to join up and become Catholics. Just wondering and thinking ahead.
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Do you know something we don’t know? Take me to your leader.
 
We ought not assume that any sentient beings are in need of baptism. They may be free of Original/Personal sin.
 
  1. An alien probably wouldn’t be entitled to baptism anyway.
  2. Baptism is only valid when done with water. Sand can not be used.
  3. Why would God have created water sensitive creatures who have to be baptised? God is a God of mercy not needless suffering.
 
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That isn’t a Church teaching.

It’s a speculation on what might happen, and I suspect it is tongue in cheek/hyperbole given the context. This wasn’t a theological exposition nor any teaching at all actually.

To be baptized, one has to have an immortal soul in need of baptism. So in reality there would be much theological discussion. We don’t baptize dogs, or any other creature, because they aren’t the union of a body and an immortal soul with original sin. Same would hold true for any life on another planet, it would first need to meet the criteria for baptism.

Regarding baptism with anything other than water, I repeat: no, it isn’t possible.
 
Immortal soul is not sufficient. It must be an immortal human soul. The Christian economy of salvation is for human beings only. If there are non-human intelligent lifeforms out there, they are neither in need of, nor entitled to, the Christian economy. Unless they were humans enslaved and resettled by the Goa’uld, in which case these “aliens” would indeed be entitled to baptism. I would also argue that Spock would also be eligible for baptism (he is half human), but his father Sarek would not. Worf is not entitled to baptism, but his son Alexander is.

My basis for this is simple, and this is something that goes to the core of the earliest Christological debates: God became human. He did not merely become material, but he took on a full human nature, with a fully created human soul, a real human body, and rational human mind. Alongside this is the principle of “what was not assumed was not redeemed.”
 
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