sacrament

[vincent_naw]

My little experience from the pastoral ministry: Nowadays, there are very few men come to the church for the liturgical celebration. Many are women. This makes some problems. For instance, when a child arrives the time to be baptized, there should be parents who present the child, but sometimes only one of the parents can be present. Usually the mother. It’s my difficulty. I don’t know how about in other places of the world?

 

[Phemie]

My little experience from the pastoral ministry: Nowadays, there are very few men come to the church for the liturgical celebration. Many are women. This makes some problems. For instance, when a child arrives the time to be baptized, there should be parents who present the child, but sometimes only one of the parents can be present. Usually the mother. It’s my difficulty. I don’t know how about in other places of the world?

Do you mean that fathers don’t come to the baptism even when they are married to the child’s mother or do you mean that there are a lot of unmarried mothers in your parish?

In years past in Canada it was rare for a mother to be at the children’s baptism. I know women with 6 or 7 kids who have never seen one of them baptized for the simple reason that women didn’t leave the house for at least 40 days after they gave birth. The babies were generally baptized on the first Sunday after their birth or the first Sunday after they were discharged from the hospital and mom stayed home.

 

[vincent_naw]

Thanks for your reply!
What I’d like to say is the importance of the sacrament of the baptism. It’s good that both father and mother of the child are present at the baptism because they are the first educators of faith for their children. But sometimes they can not be present together even though they are married. What I want to say is in some context and situations, men have allergic to the church. Thanks!

 

[dconklin]

Back in the day… God parents took the baby from the hospital to the church for Baptism before mom was even released from the hospital.

 

[CB_Catholic]

My little experience from the pastoral ministry: Nowadays, there are very few men come to the church for the liturgical celebration. Many are women. This makes some problems. For instance, when a child arrives the time to be baptized, there should be parents who present the child, but sometimes only one of the parents can be present. Usually the mother. It’s my difficulty. I don’t know how about in other places of the world?

Although there are more men than women attending church usually, there are plenty of men who do attend church, and I have yet to see a baby baptized in my parish where there were no men present, even if the father was not (which is rare). Usually there are a male and female Godparent, but not always.