Baptism

[buttercupSE11]

Hi all,

I enquired about baptism at my local church. Baby Butter is now 7 months and I was made to feel like a bad catholic (and mother) as I was told very frankly 'a baby should be baptised within the first few weeks of life and you should enquire about it before the baby is born'. Baptism dates are now booked up until October.

Ideally we would have Baby Butter baptised much earlier but we moved house etc.

Just wanted to know how young/old anyone else's baby was when they were baptised.

Thanks x

[parkview]

Just wondering why you want your child to be baptised? Are you a practicing catholic? Does it mean something for you or is it a ritual you think is part of your family tradition?

I know when I was a child my mum always said that babies should be baptised asap because if they should die they otherwise would not go into heaven. She actually believed this and I assume that's probably the reason why they reacted so unfriendly at your church.

I do not believe this and even though I grew up strictly catholic, I am not a religious person. We therefore opted for a humanistic naming ceremony, which was the most beautiful experience, with lots of friends around and poems and personal messages for the child being read by their guidance parents. Yet, obviously, if you are a practicing catholic, baptism has a very different, important meaning for you.

[katgod]

Change church? Traditionally it was done v early, and as dutiful first time mother my son was 'done' at 3 months old. Daughter was about 8 months. Third child was turned 2. Either they want your child baptised and a member of the church or they don't. And either you accept being made to feel bad as part of the process or you find somewhere else that is happy to support you and your family. There are other Catholic Churches, and there are other branches of Christianity too. Good luck

[Yak]

That sounds super traditional to me. I thought 6 months plus was more common these days? We got yaklet dunked at about 6 / 7 months, and that was quite young in our catholic church. Enough with the guilt!

[Strawbs]

6 months old here. I'm catholic but mini strawbs was christened in our local C of E church as I'm not particularly religious but my OH is and is C of E. regardless of what they think at that church it is your choice. The catholic religion LOVES a bit of guilt, don't rise to it or let it bother you and have your baby christened when you like! Sounds like October is the first chance you will be anyway so just run with that.. X

[ClareC]

Change church! With an attitude like that its hardly a surprise congregations are dwindling!

Number one was 'done' at 9 months, number two a couple of weeks after his second birthday.

Number one would have been a few months earlier but we were in ED and had a long wait for a date. Number two was a country church and we got to choose whenever we liked!!

[buttercupSE11]

Thanks for your comments everyone-don't feel half as bad now! Did ask at another church a bit further away and was told that the priest had died recently and they didn't give any indication when the next baptism will be.Plus my local church told me I need to be coming to mass consistently for 3-6 months before my baby can be baptised. So Strawbs I think I will take your advice and just go with it as October is the first chance I will get by the sounds of things and I don't want to leave it any later.x

[enjoy]

Well, my daughter was 1 year, my son two years ...

And she was 10 for her holy communion.

All late, all fine :-)

[dollydaydream]

Why don't you try a different church I never heard of the church being booked up until

october unless you want a baptism with no one else being baptised.

Baptismism does matter alot if you want your child to go to a good Catholic secondary school.

[JulieP]

How can it be booked until October if they are meant to be baptised when they are a few weeks old!. This must meant that babies are being booked in before they are born!

PS: I don't know if it would be glib to point out that Jesus was about 30 when he was baptised?

[StraferJack]

Baptism is just a rite of passage for most faiths I think, but with the Catholic church is it still "damned for eternity" if you die unbaptised?

[borderpaul]

You will be happy to know Catholicism has revised the concept of Original sin. The old teaching was that everybody was born with the original sin of Adam and that if a baby died unbaptised, it would go to hell. Not surprisingly this was viewed as unfair and was later revised so that the baby would go to Limbo and then eventually that the baby went to heaven. I know it sounds a bit far-fetched now but having gone to a Catholic primary and secondary, we believed it.

I think you should wait till a slot becomes available at your local church. Baptism in whatever religion is a celebration you should have when family and friends can attend especially the future Godparents.

Unless of course, you are in it for schools, if you are then you need the child baptised within the first year. Most RC secondary schools have this as a rule, although I was told a few years back, some sharp elbowed parents were going to take them to court.

[Dodo1]

Hi

If your child is a girl and you want her to go to Coloma then to stand a chance when she is 11 you will have to get her baptised within a very short period of her birth. This catches alot of parents out!

[sunbob]

My other half is quite traditional (protestant) and was very eager to get our daughter Christened as young as possible. Our lovely CofE vicar was quite surprised and said that that's quite unusual these days, they were able to fit her in at 3 months but only by having a separate service rather than during the Sunday Mass with all our Church friends there as we would have preferred.

By the time our Son came along, however, we had developed into the sleep deprived parents we are now and weren't quite so worried about the timing! We waited until about 9 months old in order for him to be welcomed into our Church in the main Sunday Mass, surrounded by our lovely Church Family, which was the most important thing for us.

[INMCD]

We had the same sort of thing with our eldest. We waited until the Summer to have her baptised and it was definitely frowned upon (she was 8 months). We then decided not to send her to St Anthony's so didn't go to church. The priest asked me one Christmas Day why he hadn't seen us so when my son was born I was too scared to ask him to baptise him (silly I know!). When we had another daughter the priest had left and the new priest seemed a lot more understanding. My son was 3 by the time he was baptised - the water part was interesting! I was baptised at 9 days old! xx