Commenting on a deformed, abnormal fetus that resembled an animal (“monster”) and whether they should be baptized, the Roman Ritual of Pope Paul V, promulgated by the apostolic constitution of Apostolicæ Sedi of June 17, 1614, in 1614, wrote:
In monstris vero
baptizandis, si casus eveniat, magna cautio adhibenda est, de quo si opus
fuerit, Ordinarius loci, vel alii periti consulantur, nisi mortis periculum
immineat.
Monstrum, quod humanam
speciem non præseferat, baptizari non debet, de quo si dubium
fuerit, baptizetur sub hac conditione: Si tu es homo,
ego te baptizo etc. ("De Sacramento Baptismi," in Rituale
Romanum Pauli V [London: Burns, Oates & Co., 1872], 5)
English translation:
But in the case of monsters
to be baptized—if the occasion arises—great caution must be exercised; if
needed, the local ordinary or other experts should be consulted, unless there
is an imminent danger of death.
A monster that does not
exhibit the human form should not be baptized; however, if there
is any doubt regarding this, it shall be baptized under the following
condition: “If you are human, I baptize you, etc.”
At the time, the predominant view of the Roman Catholic religion was that of delayed ensoulment (with Christ as an exception). And as the sacrament of baptism is the
ordinary means of regeneration and being translated from being a son of Adam to
a son of Christ, the ritual promulgated by Paul V, in the Catholic view, has
probably condemned many infants to hell (and if anyone claims unbaptized
infants, without exception, go to heaven, in Catholic theology, that is [1]
false and [2] is Pelagian).
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