Hi Anne,

You said:
A friend who belongs to the Legion of Mary recently baptized an old lady who did not have long to live. My friend is now worried that the lady might have already been baptized even though she said she was not.

Normally if an adult is not sure whether he has been baptized the priest will perform a conditional Baptism.

• If this lady was baptized before, has my friend committed a sin by not saying it was a conditional Baptism?

Unless the lady was in imminent danger of death (in my mind did not have long to live does not necessarily imply an imminent danger of death); only a priest or deacon may licitly baptize.

In any case, assuming there was an imminent danger of death, and the woman explicitly desired Baptism:

• she acted in good faith
• has not sinned, and
• there is no reason to worry.

If the woman is still alive, she should follow it up with a priest or deacon, so that the Baptism can be properly registered and the Baptism formalized.

Eric

Hi Anne,

You said:

• Also, what is a buckshot e-mail?

I mention this term in my commentary called:

the non-Christian believer

A buckshot e-mail contains a list of numerous questions [from 15 to 25 to 100] questions.
It's a buckshot e-mail in the sense that each e-mail has a number of pellets [questions] in each shot or e-mail.

The visitor is not interested in clearing up any misconception they may have about the Catholic Faith or inquiring about what Catholics believe on ceratin theological teachings.

I'll offer them a free copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, just to find out they either:

• have no interest in reading it, or
• already have one.

Sometimes these e-mails are accompanied by sarcasm and arrogance.

Many of these believers are not really believers.

In their e-mails they will argue what they are against, but never what they believe in: Similar to the Protestant Reformers, who disagreed among themselves, but agreed that Rome was wrong and Jesus broke His promise in Matthew 16:13-20.

Personally, I think most of these people are either:

• holding grudges from the past based on bad experiences with overbearing parents or scandalous clergy, or
• they are just anti-Catholic

You said:

• Finally, could you please let me know where on your web site I can find the answer to my question?

The only way to find it is by searching our knowledge base at:

https://www.AskACatholic.com/SiteSearch

You may have to use key words from your original question because if the question is of a sensitive nature, I sometimes change the name of the questioner before posting.

I hope this addresses everything you asked.

Mike