Therefore, if any child is found in the street or in any other place and does not know to whom it belongs, whether it is baptized or not; if it is already unbaptized, but because there is no public testimony, it should be baptized again in the church and such baptism may not be considered a rebaptism, because the rebaptizers only contest the public baptism of children, etc.
But if it is the case that a woman is so unawares overhasty with the birth and
the child would be so weak that it would pass away before she could call someone to it: in this case she may baptize the child alone; if it then dies, it has died well and has received the right baptism, which the mother should not doubt etc.
But if the child remains alive, the mother should not tell anyone about her baptism, but keep silent and bring the child to the public baptism according to the Christian order and practice.
2134 D- 64.321.; 22.166. IV. Hptst. - B. On the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, esp. W. X, 2620-2622. 2135
gen. And this other baptism should not and cannot be counted for rebaptism; as is also said above about foundlings. For it happens only because the mother, as a single person, is baptized, especially in
The fact that such an important matter, in which the soul's salvation is at stake, cannot be believed at all, and that their baptism has no testimony, makes public baptism highly necessary.