Can this child be baptized?

[IrishAm]

I’m sure this has been asked in the past – and, therefore, I apologize and ask your kind patience – but I could not find the answer on a search and am annoyingly asking again.

A colleague, not Catholic, married a Catholic woman outside of the Church. They have a child. She wants the child to be baptized Catholic. Can they do that?

My response was no, because one criteria for the baptism would be a reasonable expectation that the child would be raised Catholic and their situation runs contradictory to that. (Realizing, of course, that there is always a priest somewhere who would likely be willing to baptize the baby.) He asked if that wouldn’t be “punishing the innocent baby”? Which actually was a pretty good question . . .

He also asked, if they had the baby baptized in another church, couldn’t he (the child) decide to be Catholic later on and the Church would accept that baptism. I responded yes, we accept most other Christian baptisms done in trinitarian form, but from a Catholic perspective the child would not be receiving the graces of a sacramental baptism. (Not, apparently, a big concern for the father.)

Your expertise, please? (And, yes, my gut response was they should get their marriage blessed by the Church, get that sweet baby baptized, and start going to Mass.)

 

[1ke]

Yes, this child could be baptized if the priest had a well-founded hope the child will be raised Catholic. Does the Catholic parent intend to bring the child to church, teach them their faith, and continue with the other Sacraments of Initiation? The priest will interview them and make that determination.

Some priests will not baptize the child *until *the parents rectify their marriage situation. Others will baptize them before the situation is corrected, or even if the parents do not correct it…

As for baptizing them in a faith other than the Catholic faith. Yes, the child could become a Catholic later in life, they would have to convert to the Catholic Church just like any other non-Catholic baptized person.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I’m sure this has been asked in the past – and, therefore, I apologize and ask your kind patience – but I could not find the answer on a search and am annoyingly asking again.

A colleague, not Catholic, married a Catholic woman outside of the Church. They have a child. She wants the child to be baptized Catholic. Can they do that?

My response was no, because one criteria for the baptism would be a reasonable expectation that the child would be raised Catholic and their situation runs contradictory to that. (Realizing, of course, that there is always a priest somewhere who would likely be willing to baptize the baby.) He asked if that wouldn’t be “punishing the innocent baby”? Which actually was a pretty good question . . .

He also asked, if they had the baby baptized in another church, couldn’t he (the child) decide to be Catholic later on and the Church would accept that baptism. I responded yes, we accept most other Christian baptisms done in trinitarian form, but from a Catholic perspective the child would not be receiving the graces of a sacramental baptism. (Not, apparently, a big concern for the father.)

Your expertise, please? (And, yes, my gut response was they should get their marriage blessed by the Church, get that sweet baby baptized, and start going to Mass.)

I responded yes, we accept most other Christian baptisms done in trinitarian form, but from a Catholic perspective the child would not be receiving the graces of a sacramental baptism. (Not, apparently, a big concern for the father.)

Huh? If the Child is validly Baptized the Child received the Sacrament of Baptism and Sacramental Grace, and would be in a perfect state of Sanctifying Grace until the Age of Reason.

 

[puzzleannie]

I’m
A colleague, not Catholic, married a Catholic woman outside of the Church. They have a child. She wants the child to be baptized Catholic. Can they do that?

.)

why do they want the child baptized Catholic?
they are binding him for life to follow beliefs, practices and disciplines which they themselves reject. Why? It surely cannot be because they accept Catholic teaching on sin, original and actual, or on grace, because they have rejected all of that, so again, why do they want to baptize this child? the priest has every right, and the responsibility, to get the answer to this question.