Q. On the old practice of putting salt on a baby’s tongue during the rite of Baptism… what was the reason, was it a reminder of the “salt of the Earth” or the bitterness of the cross? Is it still done? If not, why?
A. Salt has a long history of being used in various religious and pseudo-religious practices.
Because of its natural use as a purifying and preserving agent, various cultures attached a spiritual significance to salt, seeing it as a means to bring spiritual purification and preservation. Ancient Romans would rub salt on newborns to drive away evil spirits. In the Old Testament, salt is used to purify water (Second Kings 2:19) and as part of the ritual sacrifices offered to God. In Matthew 5:13 our Lord uses salt to symbolize Wisdom and the call of the Christian to give life to the world. Because of its connection to purification and Wisdom, catechumens would be given salt to mark entrance into the catechumenate and would receive it throughout their preparation for baptism.
In the pre-conciliar form of baptism, this practice was preserved by a piece of blessed and exorcized salt being placed in the mouth of the infant. The words accompanying this moment in the baptism demonstrate that it is done as a symbolic gesture to indicate that the baptized child receives Wisdom by being baptized. This is no longer a part of the current Ritual for Baptism.
The practice was not continued following the reform of the Second Vatican Council. One of the goals of the Council Fathers was to simplify the Rites used to celebrate the Sacraments so as to focus on the Sacrament itself. Every Sacramental celebration has at its core certain elements that are constitutive to the sacrament and cannot be changed. With baptism, these elements would be the use of water and the Trinitarian Formula. To remove these elements would be to remove the sacramental reality from the act.
Surrounding those essential elements are various symbolic elements that are meant to draw those participating or witnessing the sacrament into a deeper understanding of the invisible realities expressed through the visible signs. For example, the clothing of the newly baptized in a white garment or the giving of a lighted baptismal candle. Neither of these symbolic actions are essential to the celebration of baptism but instead are meant to be further visible signs of what has just happened to the newly baptized, namely, that they have been made pure and now have the light of Christ alive in their hearts. The Church could remove these elements from the baptism ritual and the sacrament of baptism would remain unchanged.
It is the same with the use of salt. It was a symbolic act meant to make manifest one of the invisible realities that comes as a result of baptism but was not essential to the nature of baptism. The Church removed it and the sacrament of baptism remained the same. While some may believe that its removal diminished the ritual of baptism, something they are well within their rights to think, the Church has the authority to add or remove these non-essential elements from Her rituals and we as faithful son and daughters of the Church are expected to trust in the wisdom of these decisions and be faithful to them.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
