Wait, I can baptize someone? Sweet! Okay, from this point forth I’m going to look for any opportunity to do so.
Don’t worry, I vow to use my power for good.
You would probably run afoul of the “sincere intent” requirement. An intent to splash a bunch of people with water as a joke is not a sincere intent to confer the sacrament of baptism. Or did you just mean, by “opportunity”, the next time someone happened to say to you “You know, I’ve always meant to be baptised, but never gotten around to it”, and you respect their faith enough to do it for them? Because even if you’re looking for them, I doubt such opportunities come up very often. And if there’s no time pressure (like, you’re not both crouched in a foxhole surrounded by the enemy, or anything like that), it’s generally prefered for the person to find a priest, or at least another member of the Church, to perform the sacrament.
Even assuming this were valid (the injured person might, for instance, have confided to the priest that he wished to be baptised just before dying), it would be unnecessary. Baptism is considered to completely wipe out all sin on the soul of the baptised (including but not limited to the Original Sin that humans are born with). So a person who has just been baptised, and has not had opportunity to commit any other sins, has no need for any sacrament. The only reason for the Sacraments of Healing (Annointing of the Sick and Pennance) is that baptism may only be administered once, so in the likely event that a person sins after baptism, some other sacrament is needed to cleanse the soul.
I’d be totally sincere in my desire to baptize the person according to the rules of their church. As Bricker framed it, at least, it doesn’t sound like you even need to be a believer to do it - and, while I’m an atheist, I have plenty of respect for people’s religious beliefs. I guess it’s questionable to me whether a believer can have “sincere intent”; if I mean to perform a valid Catholic sacrament, and I do it out of a sincere desire to baptize them in accordance with their beliefs, is that enough? Or do I have to actually believe in the trinity I’m invoking in order to be “sincere”?
As I understand the rules, yes. Maybe you get a temporay visit from the Holy Spirit while you do it. Maybe, since the Holy Spirit is everywhere, it manifests itself through you because of your sincerity (this was how it was explained to us). Maybe, despite your probable pile of misgivings, it does anyway.
Something I always liked about my Catholic upbringing is that us chilluns all got trained in performing Baptism and Extreme Unction, Just In Case. It was very empowering for a 10-yr-old to hold that spiritual power in his hands. If the Jesuits hadn’t insisted on the unfortunate celibacy and Latin prereqs I might be addressing ya’ll as father drop.
On the other hand, viewing “Kingdom of Heaven” tonight at my church’s movie night made me glad that Lutherans don’t have the same emotional investment in the Crusades. And I could talk like I knew what I was talking about.
Nope, in grave circumstances, a baptism by you would be valid.
Presumably, a baptism Ex performed under non-grave circumstances would be valid, too, just irregular and possibly schismatic. (Of course, as a non-Christian, Ex can’t be a schismatic, but anyone who requested a baptism from him, knowing that the Church teaches that such should be done only in grave circumstances, but obstinately prefering Ex as a baptizer to a priest or fellow Catholic would be.)
Of course, now that Ex knows that his baptizing under non-grave circumstances would be frowned upon by the Church, his sincerity in doing what the Church does by performing such would be be inherently questionable. (Sorry, Ex, I guess ignorance is bliss!)
That’s my understanding, too…that as long as the proper intention to legitimately baptize is there, anyone can do it…even a non-believer. It is also true that the Church recognizes all Christian baptism as valid, and one does not get re-baptized if they join the RCC, but starts with the next sacraments on the list…Reconciliation, the Eucharist, and Confirmation (the latter two often at the same mass).
Although I agree that formal Baptisms are not done twice, I am pretty sure that I was Baptized twice…once, in the orphanage by the nuns, and once at mass like most Catholic babies once my parents adopted me. No one had any specific knowledge or evidence of the first one, and so I don’t THINK that I am in some kind of trouble with the Church over it (not my fault anyway, I suppose), but I’ll bet this kind of thing happens a lot.