Apparently sometime in our Churchʻs history some people tried to baptize with BEER and it happened so often that it required a Papal letter to correct them :)
"447 [DS 829] Since as we have learned from your report, it sometimes happens because of the scarcity of water, that infants of your lands are baptized in beer, we reply to you in the tenor of those present that, since according to evangelical doctrine it is necessary “to be reborn from water and the Holy Spirit” [John 3:5] they are not to be considered rightly baptized who are baptized in beer."
[From the letter of GREGORY IX “Cum, sicut ex” to Sigurd, Archbishop of Nidaros, July 8, 1241] Denzinger (1954). The sources of Catholic dogma (178).
"447 [DS 829] Since as we have learned from your report, it sometimes happens because of the scarcity of water, that infants of your lands are baptized in beer, we reply to you in the tenor of those present that, since according to evangelical doctrine it is necessary “to be reborn from water and the Holy Spirit” [John 3:5] they are not to be considered rightly baptized who are baptized in beer."
[From the letter of GREGORY IX “Cum, sicut ex” to Sigurd, Archbishop of Nidaros, July 8, 1241] Denzinger (1954). The sources of Catholic dogma (178).
So if you ever wondered if a beer baptism is legit, the answer is NO :)
image from the 'MORGUEfile' via creative commons
