Baptism

[lisasully]

I am not Catholic but married a Catholic in a Catholic church. We Baptized our first daughter who is now 8.
I now have a 5, 2 1/2, and 5 month old. I would like to have all of them baptized.
What age is too old to baptized or is there such a thing?
Do they have to have God parents?
Can they have God parents who may not be local? Do they obtain a baptism class and send in a certificate?
Can I have all three Baptized at the same time?
Is there anything else that would be helpful for me to know?

Thank you,
Lisa

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

I am not Catholic but married a Catholic in a Catholic church. We Baptized our first daughter who is now 8.
I now have a 5, 2 1/2, and 5 month old. I would like to have all of them baptized.
What age is too old to baptized or is there such a thing?
Do they have to have God parents?
Can they have God parents who may not be local? Do they obtain a baptism class and send in a certificate?
Can I have all three Baptized at the same time?
Is there anything else that would be helpful for me to know?

Thank you,
Lisa

There is no such thing as being too old to be baptized. However, there is a difference between an infant being baptized and an adult being baptized.

Parents can make the decision to have their infants be baptized. For this purpose, children are considered infants until the age of 7 (the age of reason). When they’re older than 7, they go through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).

The godparents are meant to be people who can have an influence in your children’s lives. For that reason it’s beneficial if they are local so that your children will see them. But it’s not required.

Check with your parish to see how they handle things when the godparents aren’t nearby as far as preparation goes.

 

[mmt4]

Yes, definitely check with your parish.

My childrens’ godparents are not local because they are family members and my husband is in the military. We move every few years. With my first three, we went “home” for the baptism and the paperwork issue was less complicated. This time, it was just too expensive to fly home for it and we did not want to wait any longer (he was baptized at 10 mos of age).

Our parish had a form that I had to send to my SIL and her husband, to be completed by their parish office, and then sent back. They were not required to take a class as long as the parish could affirm they met the requirements of that parish for godparents (including counseling/instruction). I believe their parish does one on one counseling and instruction instead of a group class. We also designated a proxy for my BIL, because he could not make it out for the baptism, which required even more paperwork.

My husband and I had to attend a baptism group class through our parish because the rule was the last baptism class had to have been taken within the previous 2 years. Funny, we were the only couple who were baptizing an infant in the whole group. The rest were teens who were getting baptized and confirmed that Easter and their parents/guardians.

Between the paperwork and planning, it took 2-3 months. I would just keep all this in mind when you are figuring out timelines if you have specific dates in mind.

 

[lisasully]

Thank you for the info, especially on the time line. We have Catholic friends who never had a son and we were hoping they would be my sons Godparents. They live on the east cost.
So, good info. Thank you