Why baptism is necessary to be a true member of the Catholic Church

(LifeSiteNews) — This is the third part of our series on membership of the Church. It examines who the members of the Church are, and who they are not. Part I can be read here and Part II can be read here.

Why is this question so important today?

Because the Catholic Church is in crisis.

Those who appear to hold the highest offices in the Church – including the papacy itself – are openly spreading heresy and promoting grave sin.

Catholics are asking how this is possible.

It is only by examining the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church that we will find the answers.

One approach is to ask “who are the members of the Church?” and “when does somebody cease to be a Catholic?”

This series presents the answers to these questions as they are found in the standard works of Catholic theologians working under the guidance and supervision of the teaching authority of the Church.

We offer it as a step towards the resolution of the crisis in the Catholic Church but, most of all, as an act of love for the Church, so that she may be vindicated by the clarity of her own doctrine.

We show that there is no need for doubt or despair. However dark the times may be, when we turn to the treasures of the Church’s theological tradition, we will find the answers that we need. There is never a need to doubt the divine credentials of the Catholic Church:

Does she not show as glorious in our sight as a creature, as her God does as the Creator?… Has she not notes far more than sufficient for the purpose of convincing you? She takes her rise from the very coming of Christ, and receives her charter, as also her very form and mission, from His mouth. ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it… Coming to you then from the very time of the Apostles, spreading out into all lands, triumphing over a thousand revolutions, exhibiting so awful a unity, glorying in so mysterious a vitality, so majestic, so imperturbable, so bold, so saintly, so sublime, so beautiful, O ye sons of men, can ye doubt that she is the Divine Messenger for whom you seek?’ ^[1]

May this series make the undivided unity of the Catholic Church clear for all to see!

Part I discusses the perpetual visibility of the Church

Part II examines the threefold authority exercised by her Divine Head, Jesus Christ

In this third part we examine the sacrament of baptism, which is the gateway to membership of the Church and to eternal life.

Membership of the Church III: Baptism 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The members of the Church 

Members of the Church are those who:

1. Have received the sacrament of baptism
2. Publicly profess the Catholic faith
3. Are subject to the lawful authority of the Church.

Condition 1 – Baptism

Baptism is the external visible rite by which a person is incorporated into the Catholic Church. A visible body must have a visible rite by which membership can be visibly ascertained.

This initiatory rite of baptism is in and of itself both necessary and sufficient to constitute a person a member of the Catholic Church. ^[2]

After a person has validly received the sacrament of baptism they are a member of the Catholic Church for as long “the bonds of union with the Church have not been broken either by heresy or schism or excommunication.”^[3]

A distinction must be drawn between those who are members of the Church, those who are subject to her, and those who are neither members nor subjects but are rather bound to join her.

All members of the Church are also subjects of the Church. However, not all subjects of the Church are members.

Those are subjects without being members of the Church who, after becoming members through baptism, departed from her visible unity through public heresy or public schism or were excluded from her unity by sentence of perfect excommunication by legitimate ecclesiastical authority.

The necessity of being able to discern who are members of the visible Church is such that some theologians have posited that even those who are invalidly baptized ought to be considered members, if the fact of invalidity were due to the secret withholding of the proper intention by the priest.   

Membership of the Church III: Baptism

FULL TEXT

“For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink.” (1 Cor 12: 12-13)

The members of the Church

Members of the Church are those who:

1. Have received the sacrament of baptism
2. Publicly profess the Catholic faith
3. Are subject to the lawful authority of the Church.

The following are therefore not members of the Church:

1. The non-baptized
2. Public heretics
3. Public schismatics or those subject to perfect excommunication.

In his encyclical letter Mystici Corporis Christi, Pope Pius XII summarized this doctrine as follows:

Actually, only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.^[4])

The Catechism of the Council of Trent expressed the same doctrine in these terms:

Hence there are but three classes of persons excluded from the Church’s pale: infidels, heretics and schismatics, and excommunicated persons.

Infidels are outside the Church because they never belonged to, and never knew the Church, and were never made partakers of any of her Sacraments.

Heretics and schismatics are excluded from the Church, because they have separated from her and belong to her only as deserters belong to the army from which they have deserted. It is not, however, to be denied that they are still subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, inasmuch as they may be called before her tribunals, punished and anathematized.

Finally, excommunicated persons are not members of the Church, because they have been cut off by her sentence from the number of her children and belong not to her communion until they repent.^[5]

In this paper we consider the first of these conditions, namely, the reception of baptism.

Condition 1: Baptism

Baptism is one of the seven sacraments. It is “the outward washing of the body done together with the prescribed form of words.”

The Catechism of the Council of Trent outlines the following effects of baptism:

• remission of sin, both original and actual
• remission of all temporal punishment due to sin
• infusion of sanctifying grace
• infusion of the gifts of the Holy Ghost
• reception of an indelible character
• incorporation into the Catholic Church
• opening the gates of heaven, which had been closed by original sin.

In this paper we will focus on the effect of incorporation of the baptized person into the Catholic Church.

The Council of Florence taught:

Holy baptism holds the first place among all the sacraments, for it is the gate of the spiritual life; through it we become members of Christ and of the body of the church.^[6]

St. Thomas Aquinas reflected:

By Baptism man is born again unto the spiritual life, which is proper to the faithful of Christ, as the Apostle says (Galatians 2:20): ‘And that I live now in the flesh; I live in the faith of the Son of God.’ Now life is only in those members that are united to the head, from which they derive sense and movement. And therefore it follows of necessity that by Baptism man is incorporated in Christ, as one of His members. Again, just as the members derive sense and movement from the material head, so from their spiritual Head, i.e. Christ, do His members derive spiritual sense consisting in the knowledge of truth, and spiritual movement which results from the instinct of grace.^[7]

In his encyclical letter Mystici Corporis Christi, Pope Pius XII affirmed:

The Savior of mankind out of His infinite goodness has provided in a wonderful way for His Mystical Body, endowing it with the Sacraments, so that, as though by an uninterrupted series of graces, its members should be sustained from birth to death, and that generous provision might be made for the social needs of the Church. Through the waters of Baptism those who are born into this world dead in sin are not only born again and made members of the Church but being stamped with a spiritual seal they become able and fit to receive the other sacraments.^[8]

When Our Lord founded the Church:

He determined that through Baptism those who should believe would be incorporated in the Body of the Church.^[9]

Baptism – an external rite of initiation into a visible society

The Catholic Church is a visible society. She is always identifiable by men of good will through her four marks of unity, sanctity, catholicity and apostolicity. These marks are discernible by the senses. If the Church is a visible society then her members too must be visible. A Church whose members could not be generally discerned, after the use of reasonable diligence, could not be called visible. This is explained in more detail in the first paper in this series.

Baptism is the external visible rite by which a person is incorporated into the visible body which is the Catholic Church.

As theologian Father Francisco Sola, S.J. explained:

The Church is a visible society. But in every visible society (especially religious) there is customarily some external rite (taken at least in a broad sense) to manifest one’s admission and entrance into that society. Therefore it was necessary that Christ also, when he instituted his visible religious society, should establish some external rite, to make clear one’s entrance into his society.^[10]

This initiatory rite of baptism is in and of itself both necessary and sufficient to constitute a person a member of the Catholic Church.^[11] After a person has validly received the sacrament of baptism they are a member of the Catholic Church for as long as “the bonds of union with the Church have not been broken either by heresy or schism or excommunication.”^[12]

Here we must make a very important distinction between being a subject of the Church and a member of the Church.

The theologian Joachim Salaverri, in the Sacrae Theologiae Summa, defines the terms as follows:

A subject is said to be someone who is under the social power of another.

A member is… that which is united to some organic body as an integral part of it.^[13]

Furthermore, we can distinguish a third category: those who are neither subjects or members of a society, but are bound to become such.

When applied to the Catholic Church we can divide mankind into three categories:

1. “Those bound to enter the Church are those on whom Christ has placed an obligation to join his Church; such are all men on earth”^[14]
2. “Subjects of the Church are those who are under the social power of the Church… Therefore, subjects of the Church are thought to be all those who have been baptized, even if they are heretics or schismatics or excommunicated persons who are to be shunned”^[15]
3. “Members of the Church are those who are united to the body of the Church as an integral part.”^[16]

All members of the Church are also subjects of the Church. However, not all subjects of the Church are members.

Those are subjects without being members who, after becoming members of the Church through baptism, then departed from her visible unity through public heresy or public schism or were excluded from her unity by sentence of major excommunication by legitimate ecclesiastical authority.

In the succeeding papers of this series, we will examine in more detail the manner in which a person can depart from membership of the Church through public heresy or public schism.

However, to conclude this paper we will draw attention to an interesting theological debate which emphasizes the important relationship between the doctrine of perpetual visibility and the Church’s teaching on membership.

A further illustration of the relationship between visibility and membership

There have been theologians – including St. Robert Bellarmine – who put forward the argument that those who have received baptism invalidly due to a defect of intention should be considered as members of the Church. That is, in a situation where the visible rite of the Church was properly celebrated, but the minister, known only to himself, withheld the proper intention.

The contrary opinion, that valid baptism is essential for membership, has come to be considered a conclusion certain in theology or at least more probable.^[17]

Salaverri explains that “by an invalid Baptism, although properly conferred, [i.e. invalid due only to defect of intention] persons can be constituted members of the Church only putatively and apparently, but not effectively and really.”^[18]

This is because:

[I]n order to constitute members of the Church in reality… that Baptism is required whereby persons are rendered capable of participating in the specific and principal social goods of the Church, which are the Sacraments. But only by a valid Baptism are persons rendered capable of participating in such social goods.^[19]

Furthermore:

[I]n order to constitute members of the Body of the Church really what is required, according to Scripture and the understanding of the Church, is that Baptism, whereby really the regeneration and rebirth take place by which persons truly are united with Christ and are incorporated into him as the Head of Body of the Church. Therefore valid Baptism is required in order really to constitute members of the Body of the Church.^[20]

However, some theologians held the contrary view because of the necessity of the members of the Church being generally visible. They were prepared to consider the possibility that a person on whom the baptismal rite had been visibly but invalidly conferred (due to deliberate intention of the minister) might be a member of the Church because the external rite had visibly taken place and it was impossible for other members of the Church to know that this person was not actually baptized.

In other words, they took the position that a person who appeared in every external respect (apparent baptism, public profession of the faith and lawful obedience to the hierarchy) to be a member of the Catholic Church, must of necessity actually be a member of that same Church.

Though the opinion may be false, the debate itself is instructive because it draws attention to the importance of external visible characteristics, rather than internal dispositions, for the identification of the members of the Catholic Church.

This is of crucial importance when considering the status of public heretics and public schismatics, as we will see in the final two papers.