Feature Articles
Baptism in Private
or, "Why Can't grandma just do it when no one is looking?"
or, "Why Can't grandma just do it when no one is looking?"
From time to time, priests get calls from frantic grandmothers (and other relatives) about the failure of the younger generation to get their kids baptized. For whatever reason, some young people don’t want to bother with church (or in some cases, might be embarrassed to ask about baptism because then the priest will ask them why they haven’t been attending mass.)
In any case, the grandma gets panicky about the eternal fate of the little child who will suffer without the grace of baptism. After begging the parents and maybe inquiring with the priest, the subject ends in argument. Then it happens. Grandma wonders if somehow she can just get the child baptized in private… without the parents knowing.
Grandma, being very astute, is aware that sometimes baptisms are performed by nurses or other people in hospitals where the child is born but is mortally ill. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Number 1256, "The ordinary ministers of baptism are the bishop and the priest, and in the Latin church, the deacon. In case of necessity, any person, even someone not baptized, can baptize, if he has the required intention. At Number 1261, concerning children who die without baptism, the Catechism tells us that we entrust such little ones to the mercy of God, and that we have hope that there is some way of salvation for such children. Nevertheless, we are instructed of the urgency of getting little ones baptized without delay.
The end result of this for our grandmother is that she reaches the conclusion that she’ll just have to baptize the child herself. Next weekend she’ll be babysitting, and she thinks maybe in the bath, she can baptize the little child without anyone being the wiser.
PLEASE DON"T DO THAT!
First of all, the priest or deacon should always baptize, except in case of necessity. That means for anyone just to do it on their own, the child must be in imminent danger of death. If you live far from any priest or deacon, sometimes a catechist is deputed to baptize.
But the big problem is this: how can the church keep track of baptisms performed in secret? We can only be baptized once. AND, the church asks the permission of the parents before the baptism is performed. We want to have some reasonable hope that the child will be brought up in the Catholic faith. If parents are unwilling to have their kids baptized… pray for them. Pray that God will be merciful to the little child who doesn’t know any better. But you open yourself up to endless problems if you try to perform baptisms on your own, without the knowledge of the parents or the church. This is not the way the church intends for baptism to be celebrated… and no one should deputize themselves to baptize unkess the child truly is at death’s door… and the local parish is informed as soon as possible.
In any case, the grandma gets panicky about the eternal fate of the little child who will suffer without the grace of baptism. After begging the parents and maybe inquiring with the priest, the subject ends in argument. Then it happens. Grandma wonders if somehow she can just get the child baptized in private… without the parents knowing.
Grandma, being very astute, is aware that sometimes baptisms are performed by nurses or other people in hospitals where the child is born but is mortally ill. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Number 1256, "The ordinary ministers of baptism are the bishop and the priest, and in the Latin church, the deacon. In case of necessity, any person, even someone not baptized, can baptize, if he has the required intention. At Number 1261, concerning children who die without baptism, the Catechism tells us that we entrust such little ones to the mercy of God, and that we have hope that there is some way of salvation for such children. Nevertheless, we are instructed of the urgency of getting little ones baptized without delay.
The end result of this for our grandmother is that she reaches the conclusion that she’ll just have to baptize the child herself. Next weekend she’ll be babysitting, and she thinks maybe in the bath, she can baptize the little child without anyone being the wiser.
PLEASE DON"T DO THAT!
First of all, the priest or deacon should always baptize, except in case of necessity. That means for anyone just to do it on their own, the child must be in imminent danger of death. If you live far from any priest or deacon, sometimes a catechist is deputed to baptize.
But the big problem is this: how can the church keep track of baptisms performed in secret? We can only be baptized once. AND, the church asks the permission of the parents before the baptism is performed. We want to have some reasonable hope that the child will be brought up in the Catholic faith. If parents are unwilling to have their kids baptized… pray for them. Pray that God will be merciful to the little child who doesn’t know any better. But you open yourself up to endless problems if you try to perform baptisms on your own, without the knowledge of the parents or the church. This is not the way the church intends for baptism to be celebrated… and no one should deputize themselves to baptize unkess the child truly is at death’s door… and the local parish is informed as soon as possible.