Folio 533
Leo XIII, 1878-1903
printed p. 501 · pdf p. 533
"where Peter is, there is the Church."1 Therefore, whoever wishes to be called by the name of Catholic, ought truly to heed the words of Jerome to Pope Damasus: "I who follow no one as first except Christ, associate myself in communion with your Beatitude, that is, with the Chair of Peter; upon that Rock, I know the Church is built [Matt. 16:18]; . . . whoever gathereth not with thee scattereth"2 [Matt. 12:30].
The Matter of Baptism3
[From a Decree of the Holy Office, August 21, 1901]
The Archbishop of Utrecht4 relates:
1977. "Many medical doctors in hospitals and elsewhere in cases of necessity are accustomed to baptize infants in their mother's wombs with water mixed with hydrargyrus bichloratus corrosivus (in French: chloride de mercure). This water is compounded approximately of a solution of one part of this chloretus hydrargicus in a thousand parts of water, and with this solution of water the potion is poisonous. Now the reason why they use this mixture is that the womb of the mother may not be infected with disease."
Therefore the questions:
I. Is a baptism administered with such water certainly or dubiously valid?
II. Is it permitted to avoid all danger of disease to administer the sacrament of baptism with such water?
III. Is it permitted also to use this water when pure water can be applied without any danger of disease?
The answers are (with the approbation of Leo XIII):
To I. This will be answered in II.
To II. It is permitted when real danger of disease is present.
To III. No.
The Use of the Most Blessed Eucharist5
[From the Encyclical, "Mirae caritatis," May 28, 1902]
1978. Away then with that widespread and most pernicious error on the part of those who express the opinion that the reception of the Eucharist is for the most part assigned to those who, free of cares and narrow in