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Further to my earlier reply: The Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church [as if the Catechism itself were not long enough, it has a commentary] states that "Such cases can easily occur in a maternity hospital, when it may fall to a non-christian nurse to confer the sacrament on a dying baby. All that is necessary is that water be poured while the trinitarian baptismal formula is recited. The minister does not need to *believe* in the effect of the sacrament; what is required is simply the *intention* of 'doing what the Church does', i.e. of performing the Christian rite." It might seem strange that the minister need not believe in baptism; but then, even an ordained minister might be defective in his or her understanding of the theology of baptism (and dare I say, I have met a number of clergy of whom this is so). One's salvation is not dependent on the faith of the minister of one's baptism. I have no idea what the person who baptized me actually believed about the sacrament. Thomas Aquinas discussed the matter in ST, Part 3, q.67. Articulus 3 asks, Utrum laicus baptizare possit, Can a layman baptize? (He can). Articulus 4 asks, Utrum mulier possit baptizare, Can a woman baptize? (She can). And Articulus 5 asks, Utrum ille qui non est baptizatus, possit sacramentum baptismi conferre, Whether he who is not baptized, can confer the sacrament of baptism. He can, says Aquinas, on the basis, not (for once) of a scriptural text, but of a text from Isidore of Seville; and Aquinas cites further Augustine, Pope Nicholas, and Pope Gregory II in support of his view. It would seem, therefore, that this has always been the view of the Catholic Church. Oriens. ____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%