Cases for denial of baptism?

[jdnation]

Hello, I haven’t been able to find an answer to this and I do not currently know all the circumstances.

A relative of mine who has never been married and remains single and I believe plans to remain single adopted a child from overseas who is under 5 years old. She currently shares a home with another woman (But there is no homosexual relationship). They both will be raising the child together in the home but only one is the legal mother and as I mentioned they are not in a homosexual relationship.

Recently they tried to have the child baptized in the Catholic faith but apparently were refused… So instead they had the baptism done in an Anglican Church.

I don’t know all the details, but based on the above circumstances, is there any reason why the Catholic Church would refuse to baptise the child? Does it have to do with being a single mother? I don’t see how that would be grounds for not baptizing anyone though…

Can anyone shed light on reasons why Baptism of children may be refused?

 

[1ke]

Single parenting is not an impediment to baptism. The requirements for baptism are:

Can. 868 §1. For an infant to be baptized licitly:

1/ the parents or at least one of them or the person who legitimately takes their place must consent;

2/ there must be a founded hope that the infant will be brought up in the Catholic religion; if such hope is altogether lacking, the baptism is to be delayed according to the prescripts of particular law after the parents have been advised about the reason.

We don’t know the situation, so we don’t know the reason that it may have been suggested that baptism be postponed. Note above, baptism is never denied, but it can be delayed.

Off the top of my head, one thing I can *speculate *on is whether or not the adoption was final. I have friends who adopted, and there was a 6 or 9 month period before it was finalized after the child was placed with them. They had to wait to have their daughter baptized until they were fully and legally done with the adoption.

It sounds like you don’t have all the facts. If your relative is a Catholic, it was wrong of her to have her child baptized outside the Catholic Church. That certainly supports the idea that there might have been some doubt as to her committment to raising the child in the Church!

 

[Seatuck]

Hello, I haven’t been able to find an answer to this and I do not currently know all the circumstances.

A relative of mine who has never been married and remains single and I believe plans to remain single adopted a child from overseas who is under 5 years old. She currently shares a home with another woman (But there is no homosexual relationship). They both will be raising the child together in the home but only one is the legal mother and as I mentioned they are not in a homosexual relationship.

Recently they tried to have the child baptized in the Catholic faith but apparently were refused… So instead they had the baptism done in an Anglican Church.

I don’t know all the details, but based on the above circumstances, is there any reason why the Catholic Church would refuse to baptise the child? Does it have to do with being a single mother? I don’t see how that would be grounds for not baptizing anyone though…

Can anyone shed light on reasons why Baptism of children may be refused?

Does your relative practice the faith? Is there any reason why the priest would have doubted the child would be raised to practice the faith?

 

[diggerdomer]

Hello, I haven’t been able to find an answer to this and I do not currently know all the circumstances.

A relative of mine who has never been married and remains single and I believe plans to remain single adopted a child from overseas who is under 5 years old. She currently shares a home with another woman (But there is no homosexual relationship). They both will be raising the child together in the home but only one is the legal mother and as I mentioned they are not in a homosexual relationship.

Recently they tried to have the child baptized in the Catholic faith but apparently were refused… So instead they had the baptism done in an Anglican Church.

I don’t know all the details, but based on the above circumstances, is there any reason why the Catholic Church would refuse to baptise the child? Does it have to do with being a single mother? I don’t see how that would be grounds for not baptizing anyone though…

Can anyone shed light on reasons why Baptism of children may be refused?

Is the mother a practicing Catholic?

 

[jdnation]

Thanks for the information.

I do not know all the circumstances either, and the situation is a bit awkward at the moment to enquire further as I’m not personally very close to this relative but she is part of my rather large family. I know for a fact that she has been raised Catholic, though I’m not sure how well she practices her faith.

Some other relatives were asking me about it because I’m usually one who generally knows more about it and I couldn’t think of a reason. They wanted to know why the Church refused to baptize the child, and they were of the opinion that perhaps the Church was in the wrong and was doing it because she was a single mother. So I reassured them that until I find out more I couldn’t say, but that the Church wouldn’t simply just refuse baptism for no good reason.

The 6-9 month waiting period sounds resonable, the adoption happened a few months ago. And I agree that perhaps the reason might have had to do with her commitment to raising the child in the faith being called into question… She did after all rebelliously go to an Anglican Church instead. But I don’t know the reasons…

 

[puzzleannie]

I don’t know all the details, but based on the above circumstances, is there any reason why the Catholic Church would refuse to baptise the child? Does it have to do with being a single mother? I don’t see how that would be grounds for not baptizing anyone though…

Can anyone shed light on reasons why Baptism of children may be refused?

this is the key to the situation, no, we do not know all the details. We do not know what the priest actually told this mother, we only have a 5th hand report of what transpired.

To answer your question there must be a well founded expectation that the child will be raised Catholic. If that is not forthcoming, the pastor is acting correctly if he delays (not denies) baptism. Anyone who asks for baptism for himself or for his minor child and intending what the Church intends may receive baptism, but the sacrament will not be administered until that assurance is meant. No, being a single mother, an unwed mother, even non-Catholic is not by itself grounds for delaying baptism. We must assume that in this case the mother was unable or unwilling to satisfy the priest the child would be raised Catholic.

in the case of an adopted child the sacrament will be delayed until the adoption is finalized, because the parent must be able to give consent and must be the one with legal right to make decisions for the child. The pastor cannot baptize without at least one parent’s consent, and until the legalities are in place, and the adoptive parent has full parental rights, he cannot give that consent.

 

[Just_Lurking]

To answer your question there must be a well founded expectation that the child will be raised Catholic.

The actual requirement is a “well founded hope” (Latin: “spes”). For example, I can hope that I will lose weight on my diet, even though I expect that I won’t.

 

[ditch]

Imagine that … the catholic church delaying/controling, I think God is cringing right now.

She did the right thing by going elsewhere where she was welcomed openly with love. There are 3 ways to be baptised: water, fire or by desire. Forget the judgemental, self-righteousness of the catholic church - she ultimately should go where she feels loved.

 

[Bluegoat]

I have known of priests who refused to baptize a baby for a stupid/improper reason. Priests do not always get the rules right, though about something so simple it seems a bit hard to understand.

But I can totally understand that confronted with that situation, one might go to another church. The baptism would still be valid, and a person would feel between a rock and a hard place. Not to mention rather angry. And if the person assumed the priest was correct, than it would seem a better option than leaving the baby unbaptized.