Baptism Record for RCIA

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mharren

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I have a friend who wants to convert to Catholic and he was Baptized in another faith (Baptist) but he no longer has the certificate and he cannot recall the name of the church where it was done. He knows the date and he knows the city, but he can’t figure out how to prove he was baptized. He doesn’t want have to start over from scratch if he doesn’t have to.

Does anyone have any tips on how to find proof of baptism. He is on Ontario, Canada. I suggested he try contacting County archives but they haven’t been able to help him. He’s also trying the Baptist Archives at McMaster University in hopes they can help him but his appointment with one of the Sister’s at his local Church is coming up in a few weeks and he was hoping he could provide her with proof of his baptism when they meet.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Regards,
  • Mharren
 
If he can’t find proof, he will be receive conditional baptism. Read more here: newadvent.org/cathen/02258b.htm#VII

So sorry - busy today - that is probably less than helpful.

Short answer is that your friend will be baptized, and the priest way say something along the lines of – “if you are not already baptized, I baptize you in the name of…”

🙂

~Liza
 
Many protestant denominations do not keep records or issue certificates of baptism.

One need only provide an affidavit of baptism. If your friend was old enough to remember his own baptism, he can supply the affidavit. He can also provide an affidavit from a witness such as a parent or other adult attending the baptism.

A conditional baptism is a last resort when no proof (affidavit or certificate) can be produced.

Your friend should ask for an affidavit form.
 
Thank you so much! This will definitely be helpful to him and at least he can stop panicking!

Thanks again!

Regards,
  • Mharren
 
He can’t remember the name of the church where he was baptized as an adult?
 
PaulfromIowa said:
He can’t remember the name of the church where he was baptized as an adult?
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Typically baptists will baptize staring around the age of 10-12. Believer’s baptism is often done not only in churches but in church camps and such. I went to a baptist church camp when I was in 8th grade with my baptist friends and a lot of people got baptized that summer in the river.
 
My records were lost after Katrina. My Priest didn’t ask for anything until 3 days before the Vigil. I asked if I called one of my Catholic cousins who may remember would that be good enough for him even though she wasn’t there. He agreed and I called her with him sitting there. She remembered and told him so. I was good to go. I almost panicked b/c my friend, who preformed the baptism, had passed away last year. My parents were the only family members there and they are deceased as well.

He may not have been Baptized as an adult. He could have been very young. Which may explain why he doesn’t remember the name of the church.
 
1ke said:
Typically baptists will baptize staring around the age of 10-12. Believer’s baptism is often done not only in churches but in church camps and such. I went to a baptist church camp when I was in 8th grade with my baptist friends and a lot of people got baptized that summer in the river.
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I don’t want to sound too judgmental, but Baptism should involve significant catechesis in the faith.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
I don’t want to sound too judgmental, but Baptism should involve significant catechesis in the faith.
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Remember, baptism isn’t a sacrament in most Protestant theology – it’s a symbol of one’s faith in Christ. Since children are capable of faith in Christ, they’re also capable of baptism. Catechesis in most evangelical Protestant churches is pretty extensive, but it doesn’t necessarily occur before baptism. Baptism is considered to be the first step in one’s journey of faith.

Baptists (and many other evangelical Protestants) generally believe that once you’re old enough to make a decision to follow Christ and be saved, you can make the decision to be baptized. This is typically around what Catholics call the “age of reason,” so it’s not uncommon to have children and pre-teens being baptized. I was baptized at the age of 8 in a pond at a church camp…
 
Back to the question in the OP, as others stated there are affidavits available if the baptism records are unavailable. If he can contact those who were present at his baptism, any of those people ought to be able to complete an affidavit re: witnessing his baptism.

Another tactic might be to look up all the Baptist churches in that city (since he knows the city) and begin calling them, searching for which church it might have been that performed his baptism. Perhaps they keep their baptismal records and could search them to see if his name is listed. (Although, I should add as a warning, many evangelical Protestant churches do not keep baptismal records, so it’s likely he’ll have to go the affidavit route.)
 
I have read that some Baptist communities require all new members to be baptized, even though they were previously baptized elsewhere in another denomination or another Baptist church. It was something about satisfying an ordinanace to make them officially part of that particular church community.

If someone was baptized twice - or more - and is now in RCIA, do they have to get the records of their original baptism (the undocumented one 25 years ago in the pond at summer camp), or will a more recent baptism do (the well documented one 10 years ago at First Baptist of Riverside)?
 
Nan_S said:
I have read that some Baptist communities require all new members to be baptized, even though they were previously baptized elsewhere in another denomination or another Baptist church. It was something about satisfying an ordinanace to make them officially part of that particular church community.
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Yes there are many reasons a Baptist might choose to undergo baptism more than once.
Nan_S said:
If someone was baptized twice - or more - and is now in RCIA, do they have to get the records of their original baptism (the undocumented one 25 years ago in the pond at summer camp), or will a more recent baptism do (the well documented one 10 years ago at First Baptist of Riverside)?
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One can only be baptized once. Their original baptism is their baptism. Subsequent “baptisms” are not.
 
1ke said:
Typically baptists will baptize staring around the age of 10-12. Believer’s baptism is often done not only in churches but in church camps and such. I went to a baptist church camp when I was in 8th grade with my baptist friends and a lot of people got baptized that summer in the river.
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Some churches will start “adult” baptism as young as 6 or 8. And it’s also more common for some families to change churches fairly often, so children may have attended a number of different places in the city.

Even if the church name were known, there’s no guarantee that anyone’s keeping records, or that they’d be willing to release them.
1ke said:
One can only be baptized once. Their original baptism is their baptism. Subsequent “baptisms” are not.
Click to expand...
Proof of one such ceremony would still work though, would it not? My understanding is that the primary concern is ensuring that the candidates have been validly baptized. So submitting proof of what would be a valid ceremony if the person were unbaptized at the time would satisfy that?
 
My friend - like me - was baptized twice, once as a Baptist and the other as a Presbyterian. He didn’t really practice growing up but went to Catholic School like I did. He has sort of ‘practiced’ Catholicism for almost 13 years now on his own and gone to mass and prayed the rosary and gone to confession but never accepted the Eucharist (actually he told me he did accept it during his first ‘chapel’ at school). He was afraid for many years to go to a priest or a sister in the church and tell them he had never been confirmed because he always wanted to be. He and I were talking several months ago about how I’ve been going through a sort of spiritual upheaval of my own an wanting to go back to the Church after having lapsed for so many years and I was talking about taking some RCIA to freshen up and then he went and googled it and found out he could become an official Catholic through RCIA and that he wouldn’t necessarily have to start from ‘scratch’ if he could find his original baptism records.

So he’s hunting them down. This afternoon he actually found the one for his first baptism after a long hunt to identify the church it was done at. He knew the dates of his baptisms because they were scrawled in the bible he got at his second baptism and his parents knew the cities where they had happened, but no one could recall the churches where they were done. But he did find one, so this is good. He’s still looking for the second one!

Regards,
  • Mharren
 
If he brings that one to his priest he probably won’t need the other one. He can also bring the bible where the information was written. He needs to also speak to the priest about RCIA. If he’s been going to the Mass for 13 years he may not need to go through RCIA.

Welcome home!!!
 
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