Is a baptism valid if performed in a Lutheran church by a female pastor?
A viewer asks whether a baptism is valid if performed in a Lutheran church by a female pastor, having heard it is valid as long as the Trinity is invoked, but wonders how, if it is not performed by a legitimate priest.
Answer
Baptism is one of those gifts from God that is not dependent on the one administering the sacrament. It works ex opere operato, that is, by the operation itself; it is not dependent on someone else's disposition. As long as water is used and the Trinitarian formula from Matthew 28 is used, the baptism is valid, so the question of a female pastor makes no difference; she is no real pastor, but the label does not matter, because anybody could perform a baptism. Now, if it is just anybody, they are probably not educated in what a legitimate baptism requires, so the odds that they use both the water and the Trinitarian formula are not great unless they are educated, especially in the Catholic Church. So when we say anybody could perform a baptism, that is only theoretical, because they would have to use the water and the Trinitarian formula, but the baptism works in and of itself, as the Church teaches.