maybemaybenot
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Joined: 9/22/2005
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I brought this subject up with a few of my co workers today < nurses >. We are one Protestant < me > , two Catholics and one Jew. All three of the others think similarly to me, acknowledging others may feel differently.
The interesting part of the conversation is where it led. We are all in the age group of 51-63 and have been nurses for 30+ years. We got to talking about how we were taught in Nursing School, that we were to Baptize stillborns and infants near death/expected to die. This practice, as I learned it in a State Nursing School, was to be done with the parents consent or if you knew the parents were of the Christian faith and absent/died in child birth/unable to speak. Certainly not to be done to other faiths. The Jewish nurse was not obligated to do this, but if she so desired she could. That is what was taught in the late 60's and seventies. I am not sure it is still taught today, but I suspect it is.
One of the Catholic co workers, who went to a Catholic Hospital School of Nursing told us that she was taught to baptize every newborn/infant/child, in danger of dying, who was not previously Baptized, even against the wishes of the parent. I had never heard of this and she assured me it was so and Googled an article from a Catholic website that talks about Nurses Baptizing babies. It is definately an interesting read and parrallels the Mormons Baptizing after death, on a smaller scale. Similar but different, so to speak.
From the website, it appears the Catholic Church no longer encourages the Baptism of infants at risk against the parents wishes, but there certainly is some pretty strong language on Baptizing aborted babies.
I'll C&P a few excerps and provide the link below for anyone interested
" According to the Church’s law, babies in danger of death may be baptized even against non-Catholic parents’ wishes. However, both prudence and respect for the parents’ role argue against baptizing babies contrary to the expressed wishes of parents. If the parents’ wishes cannot be ascertained, one should proceed on a reasonable presumption regarding them or, if doubt remains and death is imminent, one should baptize the baby."
" The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has reiterated the traditional doctrine about infant baptism in the face of theological speculation to the contrary.9 Even those who think that such speculation is plausible should not put it into practice—the baby’s eternal welfare may be at stake, and baptizing him or her is very easy. Therefore, to withhold baptism would be inexcusable; it would be like withholding a cheap and readily available drug that surely would cause no harm and might be absolutely essential to prevent death."
Re: parents with differing wishes regarding Baptism:
"If the two should disagree, accept as authoritative the judgment of the one who wishes the baby baptized, since that judgment is objectively correct."
" What about deliberately aborted babies who certainly are or may be alive but are sure to die soon? They have been abandoned by their parents and left to die. Like other abandoned children, they need and deserve adoption by anyone willing to fulfill, insofar as possible, parental duties toward them. Therefore, you should fulfill the urgent parental duty of providing for their salvation by baptizing them (see CIC, cc. 867, §2; 870; 871)."
http://www.twotlj.org/G-3-4.html
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< Message edited by maybemaybenot -- 9/18/2012 4:40:00 PM >
_____________________________
Tolerance of evil is suicide.- NYC Firefighter
When tolerance is not reciprocated, tolerance becomes surrender.
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RE: Posthumous baptism - 
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