Tough question from my 10 year old daughter

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godhavemercy

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Hello,
This is my first post here.

My sister in law and her family are born again christians. recently they invited us to their daughter’s second baptismal ( the first one they say did not count because she was too yonge to understand BTW she was babtized in the catholic church and my wife was her God Mother). The baptismal was held in local hotel swiming pool. I refused to attend , but my wife felt that she had to support her no matter what. She ended up going by herself and was not impressed.

Last Sunday while reciting the creed my 10 year old daughter asked me how come it says he we believe in one baptism and my cousin had her second one recenlty. does this mean we have to do it again.

I did not know how to answer her. any help will be much appreciated

God Bless
 
Smart kid you’ve got there.

There is one baptism. It creates an indelible mark on the soul. It makes that person a child of God. It cannot be erased.

Doing it again is called “simulating the sacrament.” It’s playacting. Sometimes people do that when they’re confused. They do it also with marriages sometimes if they’re really confused. The couple exchanges vows in more than one church to make everyone happy. One of those ceremonies is “simulating the sacrament.”

It’s kind of like when someone writes their signature on a check. Once they have signed it, they have granted the bank the right to draw on the account. You can retrace your signature over and over, but it doesn’t make the check more valid. It just wastes your time.

Or maybe she’d understand better the metaphor of a gift.

You buy a gift and wrap it and give it to the person. Everyone is happy.

Would it make sense to take the same gift back the next day and rewrap it and give it again? And again?

Once is enough. Once the gift is handed over and received, you don’t need to do it again.
 
Tell your daughter, “you know, sometimes people can have good intentions but make mistakes. Your aunt X and uncle Y love God and want to serve him, however, they are confused right now about some things. Let’s pray for them and know that Jesus will show them the way back to the Catholic Church”.
 
Quite simple really: they don’t believe what we do so they do as they please instead of really believing and following what the Creed (and Christ) says.

Tell her that those who perform more than one baptism don’t really understand what baptism means or what it does. Please do tell her to pray for them that they may find their way back to the true Church and out of confusion.

As “Liberano” said, it leaves an indelible mark on the soul. The fact that they don’t recognize it shows their confusion with their faith unlike the unity of faith we enjoy as Catholics.

That gift metaphor seems quite understandable, you already have the gift so why rewrap it?
 
There is a local nondenominational protestant church in our town that seems to draw the fallen away Catholics. And they get baptised into that church. It seems like they consider it a “joining” of that particular church.

I have a 10 year old, and sometimes we have to discuss differences of faith between our family and those of her friends. Just tell her that Catholics believe in one baptism. Period.
As she gets older and sees how our Catholic beliefs are biblically based, and how some protestant churches who proclaim to be sola scriptura refute our biblically based practices…well, you may have an apologist in the making.
 
Great posts on this question so far. I agree those who re-baptize are confused.
 
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