Resources for Baptizing Children (for my non-Catholic mom)

[alsligh]

I am a convert and plan to have my daughter (age 6) baptized this fall. I initially wasn’t going to invite extended family, but I felt that my mom might be hurt if I didn’t include them, so I mentioned it to her today. My parents are Baptist - very devout, and not judgmental, but very rooted in the Baptist church. They didn’t react negatively to my conversion, as I don’t think they were all that surprised, but they are clearly unsure about what I believe.

Anyway…the one question she asked me was “So what does baptism mean in your church?” I kept it simple and told her that it was the way that God cleanses from sin (no controversy in that, I don’t think!) I then tried to explain a little more by stating that the Catholic Church takes the approach that children are to be brought up in the faith, educated by their parents and the Church, and that baptism is the “first step” in the process. I also briefly talked about how when she is in second grade she will learn a lot about the Eucharist and will receive her first communion at the end of that year (I figured I might as well prep them for that one because I do intend to invite family to that). She told me to let me know when and they would see. They live several hours away, so if they don’t come my daughter won’t really know any better.

So I was wondering if there was some resource - an article or something - that I could provide to my mom that explains it to her in a way that is gentle but clear. Anyone?

 

[Joe_5859]

Well, there’s always the Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 1213-1284

This section lays out the basic Church teaching on Baptism.

Catholic answers has several tracts on Baptism, but they are apologetics pieces. Your mother could take those articles as you trying to “convert” her. Most of the stuff I know of tends to take the apologetics approach, which may not be what you want in this case.

You could also check out the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. There is a chapter on Baptism. It’s written in a more digestable format than the CCC, and it’s catechetical rather than apologetic in scope.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

This Catholic Answers article on infant baptism should help: catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0201frs.asp

We believe that we are all born with original sin, the sin we inherited from Adam and Eve. Baptism removes this sin. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

403 Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam’s sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the “death of the soul”.291 Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin.292

The Catechism also says the following:

The Baptism of infants

1250 Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called.50 The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.51

1251 Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them.52

1252 The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole “households” received baptism, infants may also have been baptized.53

Jesus said,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, [Baptism] he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Why would we want to deprive infants of the Sacrament that is necessary for salvation?" (John 3:5)

The following Bible verses refer to whole households being baptized, with no mention of the exclusion of children:

• Acts 16:15 (Lydia’s household)
• Acts 16:30-33 (prison guard and family
• Acts 18:8 (Crispus and family)
• 1 Corinthians 1:16 (household of Stephanus)

Baptism removes original sin, gives us sanctifying grace (a share in God’s life), makes us God’s children and members of the Church established by Christ. I would want all these things for my newborn children.