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| Q: | Do both parties in a Catholic baptism need to be Catholic? | ||||||
| A: | By "both parties" I assume you mean the baptizer and the baptized. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that any non-baptized person may be baptized. Adults are instructed before baptism if possible. There have been some instances of Catholic churches refusing to baptize children of parents that were not in good standing with the parish financially, resulting in the parents coming to us, but this does not seem to be part of the Catholic theology of baptism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that ordinary minister of baptism is a bishop, priest, or deacon, but in case of necessity any person, even someone not baptized, can baptize if he or she has the intention of doing what the church does in baptism. In the past the Catholic Church sometimes rebaptized people coming from Protestant churches. This seems to be rarer today. | ||||||
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