Lent and Sacraments

  • Thread starter Thread starter garysibio
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

garysibio

Guest
Is the prohibition on baptism during Lent something that the entire Catholic Church adheres to or is it a local practice?

A [Catholic] church I know of which does not allow baptisms during Lent allows people to get married. I don’t understand this at all. Baptism takes away original sin. Isn’t that a more pressing matter than making the couple wait a month?

This just seems inconsistent to me. Can anyone enlighten me?
 
garysibio said:
Is the prohibition on baptism during Lent something that the entire Catholic Church adheres to or is it a local practice?

A [Catholic] church I know of which does not allow baptisms during Lent allows people to get married. I don’t understand this at all. Baptism takes away original sin. Isn’t that a more pressing matter than making the couple wait a month?

This just seems inconsistent to me. Can anyone enlighten me?
Click to expand...
Could be simply the use of parish resources. A baptism needs only a week’s notice or so to be scheduled; a wedding takes months of planning in advance. Subtracting six weeks from the calendar could prevent some couples from marrying in there home parish.
 
runningdude said:
Could be simply the use of parish resources. A baptism needs only a week’s notice or so to be scheduled; a wedding takes months of planning in advance. Subtracting six weeks from the calendar could prevent some couples from marrying in there home parish.
Click to expand...
I don’t get your point. They could just as easily plan the wedding for some time after Lent. It’s not like it sneaks up on you.
 
Catholics actually can get married during Lent, but because of the penitential nature of the season, are advised to avoid unseemly festive displays.

Possibly because of some lavish christening parties, a particular parish might make this general rule, but I doubt that if a newborn was in grave danger, say, a preemie, or a baby born with birth defects, a priest would deny the little one baptism. And, as you know, baptism (in an emergency) can be administered by anyone, even a non-Christian, as long as there is intent to baptize and water and the Trinitarian formula is used. The formula for baptism was even included in my sister’s nursing school maternity nursing textbook. I work in health care, and know of two Jewish obstetricians who have emergently baptized newborns, who didn’t look like they were going to make it, and a Muslim (believe it or not) trauma surgeon who emergently baptized a critically burned trauma victim in the ER.

The christening party can take place later on, after Easter.
 
When I was a child, Lent was all about self-denial, suffering and the death of Christ in bloody agony on the cross. Some of that is still true.
When the Second Vatican Council issued its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy in 1963, the bishops called for the renewal of the season of Lent.
"
The season of Lent has a twofold character: primarily by recalling or preparing for Baptism and by penance, it disposes the faithful, who more diligently hear the word of God and devote themselves to prayer, to celebrate the paschal mystery. This twofold character is to be brought into greater prominence…Hence, more use is to be made of the baptismal features proper to the Lenten liturgy…The same is to apply to the penitential elements. It is important to impress on the minds of the faithful not only the social consequences of sin but also that essence of the virtue of penance which leads to the detestation of sin as an offense against God…" (# 109).

The Council’s reference to the baptismal character of Lent seemed strange to most of us at the time. We had not been trained to link Baptism and Lent in our minds or in our devotional practices. Yet Lent is historically baptismal in its origins and its meaning. It was the community that did penance and sacrifice for the catechumens, those awaiting baptism at the Easter Vigil. So for those reasons…for those awaiting baptism…we wait and pray and sacrifice and postpone any other baptisms (unless of course there is an emergency).
 
Is the prohibition on baptisms during Lent - except in cases of emergency - a parish-level decision then rather than something applicable to the entire Church?
 
garysibio said:
I don’t get your point. They could just as easily plan the wedding for some time after Lent. It’s not like it sneaks up on you.
Click to expand...
I mean that the church could actually be booked solid, and without dipping into Lent, the couple would have to find a different parish for the wedding.
 
runningdude said:
I mean that the church could actually be booked solid, and without dipping into Lent, the couple would have to find a different parish for the wedding.
Click to expand...
It’s not and they could have done it last week.
 
garysibio said:
It’s not and they could have done it last week.
Click to expand...
Well, you don’t know the details of the priest’s schedule, organist’s schedule, etc.

But the main reason children are not baptized during Lent is the symbolic nature of waiting until Christ’s death, and celebrating his resurrection with baptism with other catechumans on the Easter vigil. Its pretty much a universal custom.

In danger of death or other grave reason, the baptism could be celebrated without any delay.
 
garysibio said:
Is the prohibition on baptisms during Lent - except in cases of emergency - a parish-level decision then rather than something applicable to the entire Church?
Click to expand...
There is no Church prohibition on Baptismism during Lent, in fact, parents have an obligation to have their child Baptized within the first few weeks.
 
Brendan said:
There is no Church prohibition on Baptismism during Lent, in fact, parents have an obligation to have their child Baptized within the first few weeks.
Click to expand...
It never made any sense to me. It is the qay they do it at this parish. They also drain the holy water fonts. That’s why I was surprised they permitted the wedding.
 
We actually are having a Baptism tomorrow, according to the Traditional Latin rite. People used to baptiste their babies the day after birth, or within a very short period of time. I believe that Pope Benedict was baptized the day after his birth.
 
garysibio said:
It never made any sense to me. It is the qay they do it at this parish. They also drain the holy water fonts. That’s why I was surprised they permitted the wedding.
Click to expand...
Last year, the font at our church was also empty. This year it is not, for which I am very thankful. I like to have it there and available.

Interesting enough, this is what it says on the archdiocese website for our particular parish and a few others too: “Sacrament of Baptism: Second Saturday and last Sunday of the month during Ordinary Time. No Baptisms during Lent. Every Saturday & Sunday during Easter.”

Ask An Apologist

🤷
 
garysibio said:
It never made any sense to me. It is the qay they do it at this parish. They also drain the holy water fonts. That’s why I was surprised they permitted the wedding.
Click to expand...
And there you have it. It is the same mindset that decides to make people “fast” from sacramentals - i.e. holy water – that decides not to celebrate baptisms during Lent on the pretext that ‘we are a desert people’. Neither of these things is correct, in fact Rome has said categorically that nobody should be deprived of holy water during Lent and that draining the fonts is wrong. But don’t try to convince some priests and liturgists that they’re wrong.

I had that argument with a former pastor. Luckily, he also administered another parish and was able to indulge his need for sand in the holy water fonts there and so left ours alone. For a while we had a sister as pastoral assistant and while she was there there was no baptism during Lent. After she left baptisms resumed whenever someone requested one and there was a priest available.
 
At my church, the decision to delay baptisms until the Easter season was made at the diocesan level. This was mostly a recommendation, but it would still be prudent to comply unless there were an urgent reason to baptize, as was once the case a few years ago with a sickly new born.
 
garysibio said:
Is the prohibition on baptisms during Lent - except in cases of emergency - a parish-level decision then rather than something applicable to the entire Church?
Click to expand...
It’s something parish level, and something that should not be done. Baptisms need to be celebrated during lent.
 
Unless someone is in the danger of death, then Baptism should wait until Lent is finished. Baptism tends to have a celebratory aspect to it that should be avoided during a penitential season. Same with celebrations of Marriages in my opinion.
 
MissRose73 said:
Unless someone is in the danger of death, then Baptism should wait until Lent is finished. Baptism tends to have a celebratory aspect to it that should be avoided during a penitential season. Same with celebrations of Marriages in my opinion.
Click to expand...
As has been shown, the Church requires that Baptisms are to be celebrated during the first few weeks of life. It too essential to salvation to be postponed any longer than that.

If you are concerned about the celebretory nature of Baptism, then have the Baptisms held on Sundays. Each Sunday is a celebration of Easter, inluding those that are in Lent.
 
MissRose73 said:
Unless someone is in the danger of death, then Baptism should wait until Lent is finished. Baptism tends to have a celebratory aspect to it that should be avoided during a penitential season. Same with celebrations of Marriages in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, that’s not the church’s opinion.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top