2. About an Adult not Now Using Reason

65. About the second, namely someone not now using reason [n.63] yet who did at some time use reason, I say that the supposition is that he is now in habit consenting or not consenting according to the way he was actually disposed when, immediately before impediment to his use of reason, he was healthy; namely, if he actually consented then, he is judged to be consenting in habit now; if he actually dissented then he is judged to be dissenting in habit now. And I said ‘immediately’ in the sense that between the act and the impediment no opposite motion of will intervene. And thus I say universally that the one who is habitually disposed can receive the sacrament the way he could before when he was actually this way or that way disposed. But how he who is disposed actually could be baptized will be stated at once in the third part [nn.68-69].

66. But is it expedient to baptize such a one? For many things are lawful which are not expedient, I Corinthians 6.12.

67. I reply that if there be hope he will return to the use of reason, it is more expedient to await the time when he does have the use of reason; for example, it is expedient as regard one asleep to wait the time of his being awake, and as regard one who is deranged the time of a lucid interval. But if there be no hope of him, as of one who falls into some permanent blockage to his use of reason, it is expedient to baptize him (provided however he has the capacity for baptism), because otherwise he would be exposed to the danger of damnation. But how he may be capable will be stated immediately in the discussion of him who has the use of reason [n.69].