Valid Baptism

Excerpt from "Reply to a Liberal III"

by Raymond Karam--http://catholicism.org/rptal-part3.html

(all reference numbers link back to original article) 

Is Baptism by Itself Sufficient for Salvation?
When is baptism valid?

1. When water is used.
2. When the proper words are used: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
3. If the person baptizing has the intention of doing what Christ intended, and
4. In the case of an adult being baptized, if the person baptized has the intention of receiving baptism.

For, as Pope Innocent III said,

But he who never consents but entirely contradicts, receives neither the res nor the character of the sacrament. 24

St. Thomas also says,

It must be said that if the intention of receiving the sacrament is lacking in an adult, he should be rebaptized. 25

Now that we have shown that baptism is necessary for salvation, we may ask, — is valid baptism sufficient for salvation? And we answer, for children, yes, but for adults, no. What more is required of an adult besides baptism for salvation? Two more things are required: (1) the Catholic Fatith, since “without Faith it is impossible to please God,” (Heb. 11, 6) and (2) membership in the Catholic Church under the authority of the Roman Pontiff, since “outside the Church there is no salvation” and since, as St. Thomas says in his treatise, Against the Errors of the Greeks, “to be subject to the Roman Pontiff is necessary for salvation. ” 26
1. Concerning the first of these requirements, namely, Faith, St. Thomas, in his treatise on baptism, asks the question whether faith is necessary for baptism so that sanctifying grace be conferred on the soul by the sacrament. The Angelic Doctor answers that, in order to receive sanctifying grace through baptism, “right faith is of necessity required for baptism; since, as it is said in Rom. III, 22, ‘the justice of God is by faith in Jesus Christ. ‘” 27 The Council of Trent speaks of the “Sacrament of Baptism, which is the ‘Sacrament of Faith,’ without which faith there can be no justification for anyone. ” 28
Thus, baptism can be valid even if the subject who receives it does not confess the Catholic Faith, but it cannot be profitable for salvation if the subject is an adult.
2. Likewise, all those who receive baptism without the explicit intention of becoming members of the Catholic Church under the authority of the Roman Pontiff will receive a valid sacrament, but not the effects of the sacrament, namely, sanctifying grace and salvation, except if they are children.
St. Alphonsus Liguori says in his treatise, On the Commandments and the Sacraments: “We must believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true Church. Hence, they who are out of our Church, or separated, cannot be saved, except infants who die after baptism. ” 29 But this is not an exception. Children who are baptized are real members of the Church, even if their parents and the minister who baptizes them are not Catholics. Every child validly baptized is a Catholic, and every adult who is validly baptized and who confesses the Catholic Faith, with the intention of joining the Catholic Church, is a Catholic.
This is the definition St. Robert Bellarmine gives of the Catholic Church:

The Church is one only and not two, and this one and true Church is the congregation of men bound together by the profession of the same Christian Faith, and by the communion of the same sacraments, under the rule of the legitimate pastors, and especially of the one Vicar of Christ on Earth, the Roman Pontiff. 30

All those, therefore, who do not profess the Catholic Faith, or who do not participate in the sacraments of the Church or who do not submit to the authority of the Roman Pontiff, are not members of the Church and, therefore, cannot be saved.
Does this mean that every adult who is baptized outside the Catholic Church, or every baptized child who grows up and follows the heretical sect of his parents, cannot be saved? Yes, unless, before he dies, he repents and joins the Catholic Church. Let us see what the Fathers and Doctors of the Church have to say on this point.
St Fulgentius says:

Whether in the Catholic Church or in any heretical or schismatical church, if anyone receives the sacrament of baptism, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, he receives the integral sacrament; but salvation, which is the power of the sacrament, he will not have, if he has received the same sacrament outside the Catholic Church. Thus, therefore, he must return to the Church, not that he might receive the sacrament of baptism anew, which no one ought to repeat in any baptized man, but that, being now in Catholic society, he might receive eternal life, which can never, in any way, be obtained by one who, with the sacrament of baptism, would remain a stranger to the Catholic Church. 31

Again, St. Fulgentius says:

Hold most firmly, and do not doubt at all, that the sacrament of baptism can be, not only in the Catholic Church, but also among the heretics who baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, but that outside the Catholic Church it cannot profit. Nay, rather, as in the Church salvation is conferred by the sacrament of baptism to those who believe rightly, so to those baptized outside the Church, if they do not return to the Church, destruction is completely fulfilled by the same baptism. For, the unity of this Ecclesiastical society is of such value for salvation, that he is not saved by baptism to whom it has not been given where it ought to have been given. 32

Again:

Hold most firmly, and do not doubt at all, that everyone baptized outside the Catholic Church cannot be made partaker of eternal life, if before the end of this earthly life, he does not return to the Catholic Church and become incorporated with it. 33

The same St. Fulgentius says:

Hold most firmly, and do not doubt at all, that not only all the pagans, but also all the Jews, and all the heretics and schismatics who end the present life outside the Catholic Church, will go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the Devil and his angels. (Mt. 25,41 ) 34

St. Augustine says in his commentary on St. John:

And yet it may be that one may have baptism apart from the dove (i. e., the Catholic Church), but, that baptism apart from the dove should do him good, is impossible. 35

Speaking of the heretic or schismatic St. Augustine says:

I, says he, have baptism. You have it, but that baptism without charity profits you nothing, because without charity you are nothing . . . For you did have baptism to destruction, outside (the Church); if you shall have it within, it begins to profit you to salvation. 36

St. Bonaventure says, in his Breuiloquium:

Because outside of the unity of faith and love, which makes us sons and members of the Church, no one can be saved, hence, if the sacraments are received outside the Church, they are not effective for salvation, although they are sacraments. However, they can become useful if one returns to Holy Mother the Church, the only Spouse of Christ, whose sons alone Christ the Spouse deems worthy of eternal inheritance. 37

St. Augustine, in his On Baptism: Against the Donatists, Bk.4, says:

The Church compared to Paradise indicates to us that certain men are able to receive baptism even outside of Her, but that no one is able either to grasp or to retain the salvation of beatitude outside of Her.
For even the rivers from the font of Paradise, as the Scripture testifies, flowed widely outside. They are remembered by name and it is known to all through what lands they flowed and that they existed neither in Mesopotomia nor in Egypt, in which those rivers flowed. So it is that, though the water of Paradise is outside of Paradise, there is no beatitude except within Paradise.
So, the Baptism of the Church can exist outside of the Church, but the gift of a blessed life is not found except within the Church, which was founded on a rock and received the keys of binding and loosing. She is the one that keeps and possesses every power of Her Spouse and Lord, and through this conjugal power She can also bring forth sons from the handmaids, who, if they be not proud, shall be called into their share of inheritance. If, however, they are proud, they shall remain without.
Because we fight for the honor and unity of the Church, let us not concede to the heretics what we know to be false, but rather let us teach them by arguments that they cannot attain salvation through unity unless they come to that same unity. For the water of the Church is faithful and salutary and holy for those who use it well. But outside of the Church no one can use it well. 38

In the same book, St. Augustine says:

Therefore, we are right in censuring, anathematizing, abhorring and abominating the perversity of heart shown by heretics; yet it does not follow that they do not have the sacrament of the Gospel, because they have not what makes it avail. 39

We do not deny that baptism can be validly administered outside the Church, if all the conditions for its validity are fulfilled. But we deny that it can confer sanctifying grace [on adults without true Faith--Bill]and a title to the Beatific Vision if one does not intend to join the Church while receiving it. We say, with the whole tradition of the Church, that a non-Catholic can receive baptism outside the Church, but not sanctification.
Now, let us be sure that everything is perfectly clear. We have seen

1. that for one who has not the intention of being baptized, baptism is not valid;
2. if one has the intention of being baptized, but does not confess the Catholic Faith, his baptism is valid but it does not confer sanctification and salvation.
 [ Of course infants being validly baptized receive sanctification but this is lost when obstacles are placed-  mortal sin, heresy, schism]

Therefore, if this is true of real baptism, how can the so-called “baptism of desire” of Father Donnelly confer sanctification and salvation when the man has neither the required explicit intention of receiving the baptism of water nor confessed the Catholic Faith?
We confess, with the Catholic Church, and with the whole Christian tradition, that it is absolutely impossible to attain salvation outside the Catholic Church. As we have shown, we mean by this what the Church herself means:

1. that no adult can be saved if he does not, whether through ignorance or obstinacy, explicitly confess the Catholic Faith;
2. that no adult can be saved who dies ignorant of the Catholic Church, or who, having known the Church, refuses to become one of her members;
3. that no adult can be saved who dies ignorant of baptism or who, having heard of it, refuses to receive it;
4. that no adult can be saved who is baptized into a heretical or schismatical church, unless before he dies he joins the Catholic Church;
5. that no adult can be saved if he does not explicitly confess the Catholic Faith, or if he denies one truth of the Faith, or if he does not submit fully to the authority of the Roman Pontiff;
6. and that no child who dies unbaptized can be saved.

Therefore, it is impossible for a man to be saved if he holds other beliefs than those of the Catholic Church, if he belongs to any other religious community than the Catholic Church, and if he does not receive the baptism instituted by Christ.
St. Robert Bellarmine, who defends very strongly the doctrine that outside the Church there can be no salvation for anyone, says that he means by the Catholic Church

the congregation of men bound together by the profession of the same Christian Faith, and by the communion of the same sacraments, under the rule of the legitimate pastors, and especially of the one Vicar of Christ on Earth, the Roman Pontiff. 4 0

But if those who are outside the Church cannot attain salvation, is there a way of determining exactly who is a member of the Church and who is not? Bellarmine answers:

From this definition it can be easily gathered what men belong to the Church and what men do not. For there are three parts of this definition: the profession of the true Faith, the communion of the Sacraments, and the subjection to the legitimate Pastor, the Roman Pontiff. By reason of the first part are excluded all infidels, as much those who have never been in the Church, like the Jews, Turks and Pagans; as those who have been and have fallen away, like heretics and apostates. By reason of the second, are excluded catechumens and excommunicates, because the former are not to be admitted to the communion of the sacraments, the latter have been cut off from it. By reason of the third, are excluded schismatics, who have faith and the sacraments, but are not subject to the lawful pastor, and therefore they profess the Faith outside, and receive the Sacraments outside. However, all others are included, even if they be reprobate, sinful and wicked. 41

In his Compendium of Christian Doctrine, Bellarmine says:

I believe that for the good Christians there is eternal life full of every happiness and free from every sort of evil; as, on the contrary, for the infidels and for the bad Christians there is eternal death full of every misery and deprived of every good. 42

St. Peter Canisius says, in his Catechism, speaking of the Catholic Church:

Outside of this communion (as outside of the Ark of Noah) there is absolutely no salvation for mortals: not to Jews or Pagans, who never received the faith of the Church; not to heretics who, having received it, forsook or corrupted it; not to schismatics who left the peace and unity of the Church; finally, neither to excommunicates who for any other serious cause deserved to be put away and separated from the body of the Church, like pernicious members . . . For the rule of Cyprian and Augustine is certain: He will not have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his Mother. 43

Pope Boniface VIII, in his Bull Unam Sanctam, says:

Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to hold that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We firmly believe in her, and we confess absolutely that outside her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins, as the Spouse in the Canticles (VI, 8) proclaims: “One is my dove, my perfect one. She is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her,” who represents one mystical body, whose head is Christ, and the head of Christ is God. In her there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There was, indeed, at the Deluge only one ark of Noah, prefiguring the One Church, which Ark, having been finished to a single cubit, had only one pilot and guide, i. e., Noah, outside of which, as we read, all that subsisted on the Earth was destroyed. 44

Origen said in one of his homilies:

If anyone from this people wants to be saved, let him come to this house, in which is the Blood of Christ in sign of redemption . . . Let no one, therefore, persuade himself, let not one deceive himself: outside of this house, that is, outside of the Church, no one is saved; for, if anyone should go out of it, he is guilty of his own death. 45

St. Cyprian in his treatise On the Unity of the Catholic Church says:

. . . Our Lord said: “I and the Father are one.” And, again, it is written about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; “And these three are one.” And does anyone believe that this unity, coming from the divine power, and joined by heavenly sacraments, can be torn apart in the Church and separated by the division of opposing wills? Whoever does not hold this unity, does not hold the law of God, does not hold the faith of the Father and of the Son, does not hold life and salvation. 46

Speaking to the Philadelphians, St. Ignatius of Antioch says:

Do not err, my brethern: If anyone follow a maker of schism, “he shall not possess the kingdom of Heaven” (I Cor. 6,9-10). If anyone walk in a foreign doctrine, he does not communicate with the Passion. 47

St. Irenaeus says in his Treatise against Heretics:

In the Church, God has set apostles, prophets, doctors (I Cor. 12, 28), and all the remaining operation of the Spirit, of which are not partakers all those who do not hasten to come into the Church, but defraud themselves of life, by an evil determination and a worse operation. For where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every grace; for the Spirit is truth. 48

Let us listen to Pope Pius XI who, Fr. Donnelly says, believes that there can be salvation outside the Catholic Church:

No one is found in the one Church of Christ and no one perseveres in it unless he acknowledges and accepts obediently the supreme authority of St. Peter and his legitimate successors. Did not the very ancestors of those who are entangled in the errors of Photius and the Protestants obey the Roman Bishop as the high shepherd of souls?
Let them listen to Lactantius crying: “It is only the Catholic Church that retains the true worship. She is the fountain of truth, she is the abode of faith, she is the temple of God; if anyone does not enter her or if anyone shall depart from her, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let not one deceive himself, therefore, by continuous disputations. Life and salvation are in the balance which, if not looked to carefully and diligently, will be lost and destroyed.” 49

St. Fulgentius says, concerning all those who are outside the Catholic Church, whether baptized or not:

Hold most firmly and do not doubt at all, that not only all the pagans, but also all the Jews, and all the heretics and schismatics who end the present life outside the Catholic Church, will go into the eternal fire, “which was prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Mt. 25, 41 ) 50

Finally, the Council of Florence, under Pope Eugene LV, decreed in the Bull Cantate Domino:

The most holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches, that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire, “which was prepared for the Devil and his angels,” unless before death they become affiliated with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgiving, their other works of Christian piety, and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church. 51