I'm Catholic and my wife is Born Again Christian, how should we baptize our first born?

[lonegreywolf20]

That’s not what the Catholic church says. The Catholic church says once baptized Catholic you will always be Catholic.

 

[stoplooklisten]

I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is the Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ upon a foundation of Twelve Apostles. Judas was replaced. The bishops, including the Bishop of Rome, are the successors of Peter and the Twelve Apostles.

At Baptism and Confirmation and annually in the Easter season, Catholics make and renew vows to follow the ways of the Catholic Church. You should walk in that path.

Other Christian-professors may have some admirable attributes but they have a different identity. You should remain Catholic and provide the best for your children. May your spouse also walk in the historic paths of the Church. Martin Luther did not reform the Church. He was excommunicated and did not start his alternative churches until the Sixteenth Century.

 

[QwertyGirl]

Meh, if you dont believe in Catholicism, then the baptism is a meaningless ceremony. Kind of reminds me of the Mormons posthumously baptizing Anne Frank.

That may be. However, you spend the rest of your life with Catholic family members telling you you are something you are not. It can be problematic.

 

[Beyond_Reason]

What I mean is that to a person who doesn’t believe in Catholicism, they would believe that their baptism was a meaningless ceremony.

 

[Beyond_Reason]

Would you rather spend the rest of your life with Catholic family members telling you you are going to Hell?

 

[lonegreywolf20]

While I am not QwertyGirl I do believe that is part of what she means, because I have experienced that myself within my own family.

I have been told countless times that I am going to hell by my own family.

 

[QwertyGirl]

Would you rather spend the rest of your life with Catholic family members telling you you are going to Hell?

If they were telling me that, then I wouldn’t be spending any time with Catholic family members, period. I have no problem setting boundaries. I would rather the few who can’t help themselves would just mind their own business when it comes to religious beliefs of those who believe differently from them.

 

[Gorgias]

I have been told countless times that I am going to hell by my own family.

So, there are two ways to communicate that message.

One is “c’mon… please change your ways! We really care about you, and want what’s best for you, and we think that this is what’s best for you. Please consider it, ok?”

The other is “you’re going to burn in everlasting flame, boy!”

Guess which one James meant when he talked about bringing a sinner back to Christ? Guess which one Jesus meant when He said, “judge not, lest you be judged”…?

 

[lonegreywolf20]

Do you think that humans choose the one that sounds all nice and pretty all the time?

Also, if you have read the Bible, which I am going to assume that you have. We are able to judge those in the church.

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” 1 Corinthians 5:12

So with the above verse in mind, yes, judgement can come from within the church and that includes from it’s members. I still do not believe that it makes it right for my family to say you’re going to hell because I don’t want to be Catholic and would have chosen a different denomination.

 

[Gorgias]

So with the above verse in mind, yes, judgement can come from within the church and that includes from it’s members.

My take is that it’s ok to judge behavior, but not persons (or, more to the point, the state of persons’ souls)…

 

[lonegreywolf20]

That is not my take on it based on the whole verse.

" Expel the Immoral Brother

9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. 10 I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12 What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”b"

 

[Gorgias]

That is not my take on it based on the whole verse.

So, my take is that “to judge” means to say “this one’s going to heaven” or “that one’s going to hell.” That’s how I understand Jesus’ statement.

Now, what Paul is talking about in the passage isn’t a judgment of condemnation, but rather, an excommunication meant to bring the man to repentance and a return to the church. Expand your context a bit, and look back to verse 5. Why are they expelling the man? “So that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” This isn’t passing judgment so much as applying a remedy that is hoped to be medicinal and healing.

 

[stoplooklisten]

The fruit of Luther’s revolution was not to reform the Church but to splinter the Church. Luther left the Church. Jesus prayed for unity (John 17). The Church is more effective when it is unified.

 

[lilypadrees]

My late father was Catholic and my mother, now Catholic, was a Protestant when they married. She remembers being questioned by the priest who would later be the Celebrant of their marriage. One of the questions she was asked concerned the religious upbringing of any children God might bless them with. She had no problem agreeing to raise their future children in the Catholic faith.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

The only way Baptism can be “repeated” is if it’s done as conditional baptism, I.e. “If you are not baptized, then I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

And the only way conditional baptism is done is if the original baptism was invalid, e.g. using the terms Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier instead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Baptism is a sacrament, not just a nice ceremony where you congratulate the family and give presents. It makes one a child of God, an heir to the kingdom of heaven, washes away original sin and - in the case of persons who have reached the age of reason - all actual sins, mortal & venial, committed prior to baptism and infuses divine life (I.e. sanctifying grace), the theological and cardinal virtues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost etc.

True trivia tidbit: Padre Pio was baptized on the day he was born. He later said that this was one of the greatest gifts that God gave him.

 

[NotCrazyDan]

This seems a rather authoritarian bullying approach.

Maybe, but it’s also the ‘Catholic’ answer.

 

[stoplooklisten]

…was the marriage done sacramentally (inside the RCC)? If so, then marriage to a non-Catholic would have required paperwork where this issue would had previously been settled in favor of raising the children as Catholics.

…God bless you.

 

[Gorgias]

My late father was Catholic and my mother, now Catholic, was a Protestant when they married. She remembers being questioned by the priest who would later be the Celebrant of their marriage. One of the questions she was asked concerned the religious upbringing of any children God might bless them with. She had no problem agreeing to raise their future children in the Catholic faith.

was the marriage done sacramentally (inside the RCC)? If so, then marriage to a non-Catholic would have required paperwork where this issue would had previously been settled in favor of raising the children as Catholics.

That was the way that the question was asked prior to 1983. It’s not asked that way now, so… no – it would not have been settled.

 

[SMHW]

That was the way that the question was asked prior to 1983. It’s not asked that way now, so… no – it would not have been settled.

Yep. Today’s Catholic marriage prep does (or is supposed to) bring up the issue. But it is left to the couple to settle things on their own --which, in reality, was what had been happening all along.

 

[Gorgias]

But it is left to the couple to settle things on their own --which, in reality, was what had been happening all along.

Right. We’re just no longer requiring the non-Catholic spouse to potentially lie in order for the wedding to happen.