Just curious if any of you waited for a period of time before getting around to baptizing and if it worked routinely or there was anything different about the process?
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We baptized at almost 8 months. It worked out perfectly for us and ds. We are actually going to a baptism in a couple weeks for an almost 2 y/o. Our parish baptizes all ages frequently since they do it during a regular mass.
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How long? Lo will probably be baptized around almost four months because of timing and its the same. But so you mean years later?
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We waited until we could travel overseas since DH side of the family is Catholic. LO got baptized at 12 months and there wasn't any problem though my FIL took care of everything since it was their church but he didn't bring up any problems.
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My sister was baptized at two, and it was not a big.deal. Someone at the class may ask why you waited, but other than that, I suspect most people will just be happy you're doing it
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Our girls are 3 and 17 months. We had a lot to work through before we got to the point where we were ready to commit to this... Thus the delay.
I'm meeting with the deacon tomorrow and I'm wondering what to expect. I was hoping it would just be the regular baptism classes and not some additional hurdles to jump through.
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@Mrs. Jacks: are you doing both together? That is awesome! I am sure it will go well. Really, most churches are great with it. If you are honest and just say you didn't want to commit until you were ready, my guess is that they understand that just fine. Good lucktomorrow-I hope the deacon is super easy to work with. And congrats!!
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My nephew was baptized at 3 last year. We are his godparents! It was just the normal process, we had to go to a one-time class, etc.
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@Mrs. Jacks: one more quick thing...because of your somewhat different circumstance, he may actually just offer to meet with you privately, instead of taking the class. We did that for people sometimes, because sometimes it is just easier.
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So, no kids, but I myself wasn't baptized until I was around 7 yrs old or so and my brother was around 4 and we were baptized at the same time. I don't think it was a problem at all, nothing different then if it had been done earlier. I've actually seen a grown adult do the full submersion baptism.. pretty cool.
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@Mrs. Jacks: we only had to do one baptism class and our godparents did as well. Our godparents had to be Catholic also.
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We didn't but DH does RCIA prep and I do religious ed at our parish. Here, you follow infant protocol if it's before the age of reason and do a modified prep with an Easter baptism with the adult converts if older than that.
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@LovelyPlum: That's the plan. You might guess that I had a lot of doctrinal issues to work through with the stance on gays, birth control, and treatment of women within the church (as well as my agnostic partner who borders on atheist).... but we're getting there!
Culture and tradition is really important to me.
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@Mrs. Jacks: I think you should be fine as far as not having any extra hurdles to jump through, you'll probably just have one short class. Like you, culture and tradition are important to me, but the religious aspect isn't as much so it has been a struggle in our house trying to decide all that since our feelings also differ, though I find myself more and more in the Mr. Jacks camp and my DH more in your camp.
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When we took "the class" there were parents of children to be baptized up to 8 years old. It shocked me (pleasantly as we felt "late"), at her ceremony of 5 kids, she was the youngest at 9m! Oldest was 6. It didn't seem like any part of the process was any different!
My only "thing" with the older ones is they felt fear more than my LO did, so their reactions hurt my heart a little. I have no idea what you could do to help this, but that was the only thing that stuck with me was older = more emotions toward the baptism and I just felt bad they felt that fear! I'm not catholic, so it was all quite a process for me, too.
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Not personally, but there was a 5 year old who was baptized the same time as our son. The parents went through the same prep - 1 class.
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@Mrs. Jacks: This is such an exciting thing you are doing for your kids. Sometimes there may be things or people within a religion that a person may not agree with 100%, but I never think that always has to be a reason to reject a religion altogether. I'm happy you were able to reach an accord within yourself on the issues you identified.
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We had our lo baptized at 2 months, so on the early end ... But the other children getting baptized that day ranged from newborns to five year olds! We all went to the same baptism class and filled out the same paperwork
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My sister and I were baptized super late. I was 8 and she was 6. Everything was fine! We actually did it at the same time we had our first communion (know this is not the norm, lol).
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@Mrs. Jacks: I'd love to pick your brain a bit about this topic. DH and I were both raised Catholic, and the religion plays a somewhat large role within our families, as far as culture and traditions (he's Irish/Portuguese; i'm Sicilian) go.
Neither of us have attended church services in years, as we both strongly disagree with the Church's stance on gay rights, birth control, and the role of women within the church (basically just what you said). We were actually contemplating converting to the Episcopalian Church, as we would like to baptize LO, but are not sure if we can make amends with the Catholic Church. Would you mind sharing how you came to your decision? You can wall me, if you'd prefer.
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@Mrs. Jacks: I'd be interested to hear how you've worked through those issues, if you're willing to share (blog post?). Culture and tradition are important to me as well, and I've backed off of calling myself "Catholic" lately because I was feeling like a bit of a fraud who only stuck around for the comfort of tradition and belonging (while strongly disagreeing on a lot of issues). I don't have kids yet, but I feel like this will be a future struggle for me.
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@deerylou: oh my, this is my husband and I. Add women in the priesthood and the abuse scandals and I don't know if I will ever be able to go back.
I do feel like something is missing though, I am just not sure what the answer is.
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@deerylou: @Shutterbug: @looch: This is ever so hard and personal to explain. I could write you all long and complicated thought processes and even still might not be able to get to the crux of it...
And @Looch: I didn't mention the abuse scandals or the money laundering scandals, but of course those played a big role too.
I'll try and share as much as I can on the boards, but I'm wondering if we can get this switched to gold so I feel more comfortable. Even then, I"m not going to be able to express it all!
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Not trying to threadjack but we are trying to figure out what school to send our DS to – we are a few years away but it’s been weighing on my mind lately. DH is Catholic (not active), I’m Protestant. We had DS baptized in our Methodist church. I struggle with a lot of the same issues that @Mrs. Jacks mentioned with the Catholic Church – however the local Catholic school is by far the best school in our community and we are leaning on sending DS there. I never thought it would be a big deal to send a protestant kid to a Catholic school until my sister mentioned how he may feel left out when it comes to big events like First Communion. SO now, I’m a little torn.
So, I guess my question is – do you know if a child baptized non-Catholic can participate in First Communion and other Catholic sacraments? (is that the right word?) And what steps may we have to take for that to happen? I can’t bear the thought of seeing my child hurt b/c he couldn’t participate in something – especially at an age where he wouldn’t really understand it. Should I start a new thread – sorry @Mrs. Jacks
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@Mrs. Jacks: how did it go??
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@theknest: in order to participate in first communion, your child would new to be baptized in the Catholic Church or convert to Catholicism.
According the deacon I met with today, the process pretty straightforward.
And today's meeting went really well. I was very straightforward with my concerns, and the deacon didn't seem scared by them... So great meeting all around!
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@theknest: If your LO was baptized in a trinitarian Christian church, he would not need to be baptized again if he decided to become Catholic and receive first communion. He would have to convert to do this, however--Catholic communion is different than Methodist communion in that it's limited to Catholics and Catholics believe in transubstantiation. (I'm assuming Methodist means UMC here, I know communion is open to all in that church.)
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@honeybear: I should have been more clear, conversion would be an option too...
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@honeybear & @Mrs. Jacks: Thanks for your clarification. Do you know what the general steps are for a child to convert to Catholicism? - I know it's quite the process for an adult.
Coming from a Methodist church (yes UMC) where it's open and inviting - I've always felt so unwelcome in a Catholic church - I think a large part of that comes from not understanding their religion.
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@theknest: Here is one source that may be helpful. It doesn't really address kids under the age of 7 though.
I think once kids get plugged into CCD and/or Catholic School they just start going through the steps. After baptism, the next big step is the receiving of the First Communion, which will happen as part of school if your child is attending Catholic School.
http://www.catholic.com/documents/how-to-become-a-catholic
This site gives a few pretty good answers. Parental profession should be enough:
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=575597
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