SPLIT: Confusion due to name on baptismal certificate

[mpmathan]

Ok, I deal with things like this all the time. You don’t say whether it’s your given name or your surname that has changed or how it came to be changed but I’ll give you a few scenarios.

You will need to find the church where you were baptized. They hold the register in which your baptism was recorded and they are the only ones who can change it.

1. Adoption: If you were adopted you can take your adoption papers to the church and they will change the register to record the adoption. Usually it’s an entry like this: Adopted as John Doe by Frank Doe & Mary Smith with the date and the file #. Then a new Certificate of Baptism is issued in the new name. Should you require a certificate later it will always be issued with the new name and the new parents.
2. Legal name change: Take your birth certificate to the church and request that your baptismal record reflect the name change. They’ll copy your birth certificate with its number etc. and issue a new certificate.

In neither case is the record altered; a notation is simply added to the original record in the same way your Confirmation & Marriage is noted if/when they are celebrated.

Hi Pheme,

I am an Indian Catholic.

• My Baptism Certificate is recorded as “Arockia Antony Arul Mathan”
• All my other legal documents has name as “Mathan MP” where MP is the initials that we follow in our country (Educational Certificates/Passport/Financial documents)
• As my Baptism Certificate is recorded with the full name “Arockia Antony Arul Mathan”, my marriage certificate also carries the same name

Now if I have to apply for a passport for my wife there would be confusion in the name. However in India, Marriage Certificate provided by the Church is not legal for applying a passport. Nevertheless, I do not want to keep this confusion going on for ever. Please let me know how do I go about this.

Mathan MP

 

[1ke]

Why wouldn’t they issue a new certificate?

There are very strict rules regarding sacramental records. They CANNOT be altered. They cannot be changed. You were baptized as X, that remains a fact. All that can be done is that your new legal name can be noted in the notation section. The record is not changed.

There are procedures for cases of legal adoption, but again the record is not changed or deleted, it is anotated. The adoptee has a right to the original records upon turning 18.

And just FYI, the Vatican has issued specific directives when the name change is in conjunction with a “sex change” operation. The baptismal record may NOT be changed to the new name. The Church does not recognize these operations and states, “the altered condition of a member of the faithful under civil law does not change one’s canonical status which is male of female as determined the moment of birth.”

 

[Jean_Anthony]

aaa

 

[1ke]

Oops, did not notice that the OP was from 2008. Thanks, Mods, for splitting off to a new thread.

 

[Phemie]

Hi Pheme,

I am an Indian Catholic.

• My Baptism Certificate is recorded as “Arockia Antony Arul Mathan”
• All my other legal documents has name as “Mathan MP” where MP is the initials that we follow in our country (Educational Certificates/Passport/Financial documents)
• As my Baptism Certificate is recorded with the full name “Arockia Antony Arul Mathan”, my marriage certificate also carries the same name

Now if I have to apply for a passport for my wife there would be confusion in the name. However in India, Marriage Certificate provided by the Church is not legal for applying a passport. Nevertheless, I do not want to keep this confusion going on for ever. Please let me know how do I go about this.

Mathan MP

You are asking about civil documents vs Church documents. I have no idea what the passport protocol is in India.

I live in Canada and here getting a passport means presenting your government issued birth certificate and another piece of government issued photo ID: driver licence, Status Card, government picture ID card, etc. A certificate of Baptism would not be used to get a passport – although it could originally have been used as a supporting document along with your birth certificate to get the government ID.

Your best move is to talk to the passport office and they will let you know what is required and how to get your documents to match up. When I recently applied for my passport I had to use my birth certificate to get both of my given names put on my driver licence because it had originally been issued with only the middle name by which I’m known.