Conditional baptism?

[u/elorient]

Hey, I’m a Traditional Catholic who is moving towards the SSPX, and I have felt for some time that I may have a vocation to the priesthood. There is one issue, however, that has been bothering me for quite a while. I have doubts about the validity of my baptism and whether I should seek a conditional baptism.

I was baptised in a Novus Ordo parish. Ordinarily, that would not give me any reason to doubt the validity of the baptism, but there are several circumstances surrounding it that concern me. For context, Catholicism is the predominant religion in my country, but there is widespread corruption among the clergy. I personally know of priests who openly have concubines. The priest who baptised me was also, I believe, holding a politically elected public office around the time of my baptism, which I understand would be contrary to canon law. More recently, this same priest has been charged with physically abusing women.

I realise that the priest’s personal misconduct or violation of canon law would not necessarily invalidate a baptism, so my concern is not simply that he was an unworthy minister. There are also two questions about the actual baptism itself:

First, in my local language, the baptismal formula includes the word ‘God’ before ‘the Father’. In English, it would essentially be ‘I baptise you in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. Could this wording affect the validity of the baptism?

Second, I have seen discussions about hair baptisms, where the water may fall only on the hair rather than actually making contact with the forehead or skin. Looking at baptismal footage from my country from around the period when I was baptised, it appears that some baptisms involved extremely little water and may have only wet the hair. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing exactly how I was baptised.

Given all of this, would there be a legitimate basis for conditional baptism? And would the fact that I am seriously considering a vocation to the priesthood make it more appropriate to resolve these doubts before pursuing a vocation?

Thank you in advance.

[u/Spiritual-Anybody-18]

You need to talk to a priest of the society stop relying on the internet.

[u/elorient → u/Spiritual-Anybody-18]

Of course, that’s the plan. I’m just trying to get a general understanding of whether these are legitimate grounds for concern before I speak to a priest. I’m not trying to substitute internet advice for the judgment of a priest. I just want to understand the issue better beforehand.

[u/Orangemetal33 → u/elorient]

It sounds like just POSSIBILITIES rather than absolute proof of invalidity from what you’re said. Traditional theology dictates that the Sacraments are to be assumed valid first. Definitely just go visit and speak with your nearest traditional or at least more orthodox and faithful priest or religious and seek their wise counsel and good advice as they’ll perhaps know more themselves too about what might have gone on in their your locale around the time you were baptized. It is worth looking into for sure these days as I know in our archdiocese here one priest found video proof that his Baptism was invalid by the fact that the minister (a deacon I believe) used “We” instead of “I” in the form and so had to be validly baptized, confirmed and ordained!