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Questioning My Baptism Quinn wrote:

Hi, guys —

This is a serious inquiry about the validity of my Baptism. I fear God doesn't or can't hear my prayer because my Baptism may have been performed by a demon.

  • When a Priest commits crimes against the children in his Church,
    • are these the sinful acts of a holy man? or
    • Is this the wolf in sheep’s clothing?
  • And how can we know the difference?
  • If it is the wolf, are the Baptisms the wolf performs legitimate and how do we know the devil hasn't sent him there to curse rather than baptize?

It honestly has felt like I've been cursed more than blessed throughout my life. I'm entering the winter of my life and now seriously question my place in Heaven because of this lingering question about my Baptism.

I guess the "<How can we know the difference> part" is the crucial part of this I seek answers for.
Thank you,

Quinn
  { If a priest commits crimes against the children in his parish are the Baptisms he presides at valid? }

Eric replied:

Dear Quinn,

Rest assured, there is no question about the validity of your Baptism. Even an atheist can validly baptize if he intends to do what the Church does. 

The Church resolved in the 4th and 5th centuries the question of whether a sinning priest validly confected the sacraments. The answer is that the effect of the sacraments, if the priest intended to do what the Church does, does not depend on his sin, so even if the priest who baptized you was guilty of unspeakable crimes, the Baptism would be just as efficacious.

Otherwise, we'd have an intractable problem because we are all sinners, including priests, and priests do unfortunately commit grave sins, so if we second-guessed our sacraments because of suspicions of misconduct, we could never be sure our sacraments were valid, and the whole Church would fall apart. 

We know the priest was not sent to curse rather than baptize because of the words he used, which were the words of the Church. If he had private access to you to perform some sort of secret infernal rite you might have a case but, so long as he acted publicly and said what the Church bid him to say, you cannot be cursed. The curse simply isn't there. It's impossible to curse with a Baptism.

  • Does your family have any history of Freemasonry?

You should not question your place in Heaven because this was not your responsibility; one person cannot force another person to be deprived of salvation; we all stand or fall on our own. You will only be judged on what you did, not what the priest did.

If you still have doubts about curses, my best recommendation is to attend an online deliverance session performed by Msgr. Steven Rosetti at catholicexorcism.org. This was very helpful for me; it changed my life. If you have a curse, the session will remove it.

Eric
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