Baptism of desire
In the Catholic faith, the concept of baptism by desire is understood to mean the conviction that the sacramental action of baptism is also granted to those who for certain external reasons cannot receive it, but who wish to receive it (desire).
Since, according to Catholic belief, receiving baptism is necessary for salvation , the question arose in the first few centuries of the extent to which people are excluded from divine salvation who, through no fault of their own, could not receive baptism. The church father Ambrose compared the baptism of desire with the baptism of blood of the martyrs and concluded from this that the salvific effect of baptism would already be bestowed on those who expressly express the wish to be baptized but could no longer receive it for reasons such as persecution or death. Augustine initially agreed with his teacher on this matter, but later changed his attitude and taught that the performance of baptism was essential in order to receive a share in divine salvation.
The problem had to be rediscovered when, with the beginning of the modern era, Europe discovered new continents and the peoples living here. Since, according to biblical tradition, God's will for salvation is revealed in Christ for all people, the question arose to what extent God's will for salvation is compatible with the absolute necessity of receiving baptism if millions of people were innocently baptized because they had never heard of Jesus Christ . The previous ecclesiastical documents influenced by Thomas Aquinas , v. a. those of the Tridentine Council gave no answer to this, since they still assumed the possibility of every person to receive knowledge of the gospel . Thomas Aquinas, however, already knows the concept of baptism of desire and explains it (Summa theol. TP q. 66 a. 11 f).
The doctrine of the Church Robert Bellarmin was pioneering in this question: on the one hand, he confirmed the previous idea of the need for salvation of baptism and thus of belonging to the Church , but on the other hand, he expanded it by presenting the possibility of church membership according to desire. This topic was finally developed further at the Second Vatican Council . The Lumen Gentium Constitution teaches membership in the Church in stages, since God's Spirit is not only bound to the constituted Catholic Church, but is already at work wherever people ask themselves the question of the meaning of their life and of a higher being.
In the Catholic Adult Catechism it says about the baptism of desire:
“The Church teaches the saving necessity of baptism only to those to whom baptism has been preached and who have had the opportunity to choose to be baptized. Since God wants the salvation of all people (cf. 1 Tim 2: 4-6), a person who lives according to his conscience and does the will of God as he specifically recognizes it, and who therefore would certainly have desired baptism, can if he had known of its importance, attaining salvation on the basis of such a 'baptism of desire'. "
See also
literature
- Dorothea Sattler: Baptism of desire . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 143 f .