Many professed Christians have held that water baptism should be administered only once. In particular, the Council of Trentdefined a dogma that it is forbidden to baptize a person who is already baptized, because the first baptism would make an indelible markon the soul. Likewise, "Methodist theologians argued that since God never abrogated a covenant made and sealed with proper intentionality, rebaptism was never an option, unless the original baptism had been defective by not having been made in the name of the Trinity." Therefore, in cases where the validity of a baptism is in doubt, a "conditional" baptism may be performed.
Description
Such uncertainty may result from questions about whether the Triune name of God was used by the person administering the baptism. In some cases, there are doubts about whether a church from which someone is converting baptizes in a valid manner. It is an issue where an infant is a foundling, and it is not known whether the child had been baptized before abandonment. Another example of a case requiring conditional baptism is when an emergency baptism has been performed using impure water. Then, the validity of the baptism is in question. In that case, a conditional baptism is later performed by an ordinary minister of the sacrament with certainly valid matter. In a typical baptism, the minister of the sacrament says while pouring water upon the head of the one being baptized, or immersing him or her in water. In a conditional baptism, the minister of the sacrament says
Other cases
Only the living can be recipients of Sacraments. Thus, if it is uncertain whether the baptizand is dead, the formula is "If you are alive, I baptize ". In severe cases of birth anomaly, the baptism formula is "If you are a human being, I baptize ". Likewise, if an emergency baptism has been performed over a part of the body other than the head, or on a pregnant woman's womb, the child is to be conditionally rebaptized even though the emergency baptisms should be performed in this way if necessary.
