Baptism Classes

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I just recently finished 2 baptism classes in my local parish, and they were EXTREMELY disappointing. To begin, they are only offered because the diocese requires them; it was blatantly obvious that the teacher and even the “students” didn’t want to be there. (After 5 minutes I didn’t want to be there either).

Worst of all were the blatant factual mistakes of the teacher. She talked about early Church Father and couldn’t think of the saint, and then said it was Saint Thomas Aquinas who, if I am not mistaken, is NOT an early Chruch Father.

An inordinate amount of time was spent on “sacramentals” and ALL the sacraments rather than focusing on baptism. On of the videotapes was a cartoon of all things . . .

My wife is a Protestant and she did not attend. If she did I would’ve been SO EMBARRASSED-- the class had EVERYTHING that people don’t like about Catholicism. I was embarrassed for the Church and for myself as well. . .

Thanks for letting me vent . . .
 
That’s kind of disheartening. With our first on the way in April, I know baptism class is in the cards for us at some point in the near future - our diocese requires them too. I’m hopeful my parish does a good job with it.
 
I am sorry to hear this sort of thing continues to go on. When I have discussed these complaints and things that I have seen over the years with priests, they deny it. “Where is this happening? Not in my parish!” And then you ask how often he frequents any of the classes and find out never-seldom. Then you speak with people ‘in the know’ in the parish and they pull a face and say, “Yes, sadly, that is the case here.”

Have you considered writing a letter to your pastor? Perhaps take notes over the next few classes and just send your concerns ahead. You probably don’t want to make waves, but it needs to be addressed.
 
I thought of letting the pastor know but don’t really want to rock the boat. . .
 
Agent said:
I thought of letting the pastor know but don’t really want to rock the boat. . .
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Wait until after the baptism is over, and then maybe just mention to him that the Baptism class was one of the most unusual experiences you’ve ever had. This will clue him in that something is not quite right, and hopefully he’ll follow up.
 
My daughter went down to her parish to find out the procedure for baptizing her new born twin boys. She said that she was stunned to hear the priest tell her a little background on “Heaven”. He told her that she “had to earn her place in Heaven”…yikes, indeed!!
 
I think I would talk to the instructor directly. It could be just a case of that you had too high of expectations. It doesn’t sound like the class was erroneous in the presentation, but that it just didn’t measure up to what you wanted. If it was me, I’d approach the instructor in a very friendly manner to open her up to a discussion on your experience. Then if you find dissatisfied with her answers and you still think there is still a concern that the priest needs to address, then I would approach the priest.
 
I am baptism prep coordinator in my parish. One thing that is important to understand is that many of the parents that come to these sessions do not go to church and basically have not done a thing about learning their faith since they left CCD in 8th grade. Therefore I have this one opportunity to give them a lesson, however inadequate, on sacraments and the faith. Yes, it is important to talk about baptism, but if we don’t talk about the other sacraments, of which baptism is the entry way to, then they might not get the idea of the importance of baptism. To many of these parents baptism is just a cultural thing. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Eucharist, a bit about Marriage and about Confirmation, and of course Reconciliation.

It is a bit hard on those who are faithful to sit through a session like this, but I encourage the participants to talk, so those who are more educated in the faith can certainly speak up and talk about how baptism led them to appreciate the other sacraments. Baptism is, of course, the first sacrament of initiation.
 
When I go to a Batpism class, I expect to learn about Baptism.

I don’t need or want to hear about “Last Rites” or “Holy Orders”.

It is very unfortunate that so many Catholics are ignorant of their faith. Like I said earlier, I was embarrassed by the class.

It may have been bearable if the facts were correct, but to assert that Thomas Aquinas is an early Church Father is just WRONG.

ALso, I did not even go into the teacher’s WRONG belieft that communion is better when taking Host and Cup . . .
 
Joannm said:
I am baptism prep coordinator in my parish. One thing that is important to understand is that many of the parents that come to these sessions do not go to church and basically have not done a thing about learning their faith since they left CCD in 8th grade. Therefore I have this one opportunity to give them a lesson, however inadequate, on sacraments and the faith. Yes, it is important to talk about baptism, but if we don’t talk about the other sacraments, of which baptism is the entry way to, then they might not get the idea of the importance of baptism. To many of these parents baptism is just a cultural thing. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Eucharist, a bit about Marriage and about Confirmation, and of course Reconciliation.

It is a bit hard on those who are faithful to sit through a session like this, but I encourage the participants to talk, so those who are more educated in the faith can certainly speak up and talk about how baptism led them to appreciate the other sacraments. Baptism is, of course, the first sacrament of initiation.
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I can appreciate your feelings - I often feel the same way. I find that it’s tempting to try to download the entire Catechism into someone’s head, if I’m afraid that I might not ever see them again, or that they might not ever have another opportunity to learn about the faith.

I’m sure that you already do this, but for myself, I need to keep remind myself to exercise self-control, and stay focused on the subject of the class. Adults have an attention span of about an hour or so, so it’s important to be able to fit my presentation into that time slot, while allowing time for questions, and while speaking slowly and clearly enough to be heard and understood (which means not talking about more than three interrelated points, since that’s about all most people will remember). 🙂
 
jmcrae said:
I can appreciate your feelings - I often feel the same way. I find that it’s tempting to try to download the entire Catechism into someone’s head, if I’m afraid that I might not ever see them again, or that they might not ever have another opportunity to learn about the faith.

I’m sure that you already do this, but for myself, I need to keep remind myself to exercise self-control, and stay focused on the subject of the class. Adults have an attention span of about an hour or so, so it’s important to be able to fit my presentation into that time slot, while allowing time for questions, and while speaking slowly and clearly enough to be heard and understood (which means not talking about more than three interrelated points, since that’s about all most people will remember). 🙂
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Our baptism class has several speakers each touching on a different aspect of the sacrament and the sacraments in general. Having different speakers helps hold the attention of the participants. We are currently looking to revamp our program yet again by giving each family a DVD when they come to register for baptism that is quite good and then discuss it at the first class. This way they have some background in the sacrament of baptism when they come to class. Then we can expand upon that. We also emphasise Mass attendance and the reception of communion and going to confession. We also have someone who speaks briefly about marriage and we give them a handout on sexuality in Catholic Marriage. It seems to work.
 
My wife and I went last year for our daughter (child #3) and it was weak. It had been a long time so it was different from the prevoius class we took. They used a manual from “Whole Community Catechesis” or some-such, and it was frankly filled with a lot of what can only be called “blather” (A section on why we can happily address God as “Our Mother”, for example). There was one part in particular that was simply hilarious, suggesting that we (the people) should have a celebration where we all “experience water”, presumably so we will know what the baby should expect (?) My thought was, “What? The washing the sins away part isn’t going to be understood? Do the parishoners not bathe regularly?” Another amusing bit was a suggestion to let the whole community make the baptismal garment (complete with suggested “poncho-style” pattern).

We know the deacon who taught it very well, so needless to say, we were not shy about registering our impressions of the material. We had a lively debate. I’m not sure what it accomplished.
 
Agent, since you are confident in your knowledge, perhaps you could offer to teach or assist teaching at the baptism classes. I don’t know of a single parish that couldn’t use the volunteer help. So many people on this board complain about the terrible teaching at various faith formation and sacramental prep classes, and yet these same people don’t put their own knowledge and talents to use for the good of God’s Kingdom.
 
Agent said:
I just recently finished 2 baptism classes in my local parish, and they were EXTREMELY disappointing. T.
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it is sad the parish missed a prime catechetical opportunity with parents and sponsors. very short sighted but not uncommon as some pastors simply do not place importance on such outreach.
 
Agent said:
I thought of letting the pastor know but don’t really want to rock the boat. . .
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oooh do it, he loves those letters,
seriously he seldom if ever attends those classes, and may not even know who the nun or some old lady like me has dragooned to teach them, and he has a right to know what is going on.
 
I am not “confident in my knowledge”. I just know some facts, and only talk about what I know. If I don’t know something, I don’t make it up . . .
 
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