Áreas de Conocimiento para la Gestión de Proyectos

Common Statement

In order for a baptism to be valid, it must be administered by someone authorized to do so, using water and the Trinitarian formula. Typically, baptism is administered by an ordained minister or priest, within a worship service, using water (either dipping the baptizand into the water or pouring or sprinkling the water on the baptizand), and following the command of Jesus to baptize people of all nations “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). The Roman Catholic Church allows non-ordained people to administer baptism and permits baptism to occur outside a worship service; Reformed churches do not allow such exceptions. Some Reformed churches allow – at least in practice – the use of alternate

formulations of the Trinitarian formula (e.g., “in the name of God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sanctifier’); other Reformed churches as well as the Roman Catholic Church do not. With one exception, the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed churches in this dialogue accept any baptism of a member of one of the other ecclesiastical bodies in this dialogue as long as the baptism was recognized as valid by the ecclesiastical communion in which the person was a member. The exception is that the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize as valid a baptism in which any of the following is lacking: intent to do what the Church does when she baptizes, use of water, and use of the Triune name as given in Matt. 28:19.

Roman Catholic Statement

Baptism must be administered with water and in the name of the Triune God since “entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ” is signified and enacted in the sacrament (CCC, 1239). Therefore, the validity of baptism has to do with the very mystery of the faith, the mystagogy of communion with the Trinity. Consequently, the most expressive form of baptism is triple immersion in baptismal water, the latter

consecrated by a prayer of epiclesis (an invocation for the Father to send the Holy Spirit upon the water to give the grace of the Son). However, pouring is also accepted. The formula differs between the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. The minister in the Latin Church

60

says: “N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” An Eastern Rite priest utilizes a variation of this: “The servant of God, N., is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” As for the ministers of baptism a distinction is made between ordinary and extraordinary situations with the ecclesial intentionality of the sacrament preserved in both cases, either directly through the sacramental representation of Christ in the ordained minister who administers the sacrament, or indirectly through action that conforms to the Church’s understanding of it.

The ordinary ministers of Baptism are the bishop and priest and, in the Latin Church, also the deacon. In case of necessity, anyone, even a non-baptized person, with the required intention, can baptize, by using the Trinitarian baptismal formula. The intention required is to will to do what the Church does when she baptizes. The Church finds the reason for this possibility in the universal saving will of God and the necessity of Baptism for salvation. (CCC, 1256).

Reformed Statement

Sacraments must be administered by “lawful ministers” who have been “appointed to preach the Word, unto whom God has given the power to preach the gospel, and who are lawfully called by some Kirk” (Scots Conf., ch. 22; also Westminster Conf., ch 30.2). Since baptism is rooted in and declares Christ’s faithfulness, points to the faithfulness of God, and involves a congregational reaffirmation of faith and pledge “to provide an environment of witness and service,” baptism should “always be celebrated and developed in the setting of the Christian community” (BEM, Baptism IV.12). Therefore, within Reformed churches, only an ordained minister of the Word, functioning within the context of the church, may baptize.

Since the church has received the sacrament of baptism from God as a means of grace, the church baptizes by using Christ’s words of institution, baptizing people of all nations “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19; quoted by Heidelberg Catechism, Q.&A. 71 and by the Study Catechism 1998 of the PCUSA, Q.&A. 75).

Following Christ’s example and instruction, Christians baptize with water, which may be poured or sprinkled on the person, or into which the person may be dipped (2nd Helvetic Conf., ch. 20; Westminster Conf., ch. 30.3). Because the sacraments should be celebrated in their “original simplicity,” the sacrament of baptism should not be “adulterated” by adding human devices such as “exorcism, the use of burning lights, oil, salt, spittle, and such other things” as baptizing twice per year “with a multitude of ceremonies” (2nd Helvetic Conf., ch. 20; Scots Conf., ch. 22).

Reformed Christians consider a sacrament to be valid if it includes the biblical words of institution and the biblical sign (i.e., water or bread and the fruit of the vine), if it is performed by someone who would be authorized by a Christian church to perform the sacrament, if the

church’s authorities sanction the sacrament, if the recipient (or the parent[s], in cases of infant baptism) requests or intends to receive the sacrament, and if it is performed in a worship service (or, if that is not practicable, connected in some way to the worshiping community).

RECIPIENTS OF BAPTISM