Question:
Answer:
Several possibilities apply here:
If the child is in imminent danger of death, he may receive the sacraments against the will of his parents or guardians if this can be accomplished without scandal. If the child is not in danger of death, he may not be baptized or receive the sacraments against his parents’ will but must wait until they give their consent or until he or she is of age and no longer a minor. If the child were to receive the sacraments against the parents’ will, the sacraments would still be valid, and the child would be a Catholic. In this case, the parents ought to allow the child’s practice of the Faith, but this would be hard to imagine if the sacraments were administered without their consent.
The reason is simple: the supernatural law of the New Covenant does not cancel out the natural authority of the parents over their own offspring. St. Thomas Aquinas deals with this question in his Summa, teaching that the children of Jews may not be baptized against their parents’ will. Sometimes nowadays it happens that an anxious grandmother or another relative secretly baptizes a child when the child’s parents are neglecting this duty or do not intend to have the child baptized at all. The grandmother should not do this, although I do not think she is guilty of a grave fault, on account of her anxiety and love for the child.
If she does baptize the child on her own, she must reveal this fact to the priest if the child is subsequently presented for baptism, so that the child is not rebaptized, which would be a great irreverence toward the sacrament.