Trying to understand why Church allows baptism for children raised by gay couples

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Would you deny a child because of choices the parents made? That doesn’t sound like something Jesus would do.
 
Yeah I’m with those who say that a gay couple where at least one is Catholic would be able to raise a child Catholic. Recall children with gay “parents” don’t always turn out gay themselves, and children learn to be Catholic not only from imitating their parents but also from the words their parents say, from other people like relatives and teachers and from reading books
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Given the total number of saints, the odds favor my statement. Feel free to think what you like, as you will anyway.
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Even if they suffered from homosexual inclinations, it wouldn’t have mattered because they would have correctly seen them as temptations from the devil and not acted upon them. They probably wouldn’t have even thought about them as normal, as we do now.

No saint has ever written about struggling with such temptations though. There is no evidence to support your statement. It’s very much in the realm of speculation.
 
I have no problem with the Church baptizing ANYONE. The appropriate question us not trying to understand why the Church would do it by why on earth a gay couple with a child would baptize. Their children in a faith that goes directly against the very way they define themselves.

As for the saints and being gay. 1 insinuating that is slander against any saint and 2. If a saint were gay they would be hated by the LGBT community more than anything. A gay person who chooses to remain holy and chaste would be like a vampire to them.
 
JimG said:
Still, it’s hard to see how there can be a founded hope that the child will be raised Catholic in some family situations.
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Where I live, in highly secularized Quebec, it is often the grandparents who have taken on the responsibility for their grandchildren’s baptism and religious education in the face of indifferent parents.

So I don’t think we can assume that just because the parents are indifferent, there isn’t someone in the child’s life that will ensure that the child is properly catechized.

I would think, therefore, that these situations need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Also, in the case where a child is the natural child of one member of the couple, there is likely another parent in the picture. That parent may be Catholic and want the child brought up as such even if (s)he doesn’t have 100% custody. An example would be a mother turned lesbian who got custody, with the father and ex-spouse having visitation rights (I happen to know of one such case). The father may remain a Catholic in good standing, and desire to see his child raised Catholic as well.

There are far too many variables possible to determine whether a child has a good hope of being raised properly in the faith, beyond the homosexuality and living arrangements of the parents.
maliya said:
Their very lifestyle goes against the Church!
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There are plenty of validly married, Catholic heterosexual couples whose lifestyles “go against the Church”. To an extent it applies to all of us because we all sin but some have a lifestyle completely at odds not only with Church teaching but with creating a healthy environment to raise a child (violence, drugs, etc.). On the other hand homosexuals are quite capable of creating a nurturing, healthy environment for a child, even if depriving a child of an opposite-sex parent is not an ideal situation.
 
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So in other words your saying punish the children because of the dead’s of the parents.
 
The pastor decides if there is a well founded hope the child will be raised Catholic. So, this is an individual, case by case, decision.
 
Hoosier-Daddy said:
  1. If a saint were gay they would be hated by the LGBT community more than anything. A gay person who chooses to remain holy and chaste would be like a vampire to them.
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Maybe volunteer with the LGBT ministries in your Diocese. Meet some of your brothers and sisters who are practicing Catholics and also gay. It does change your point of view.
 
Thanks for assuming. I was very involved in the LGBT community in my youth. I was one of the original organizers of PRIDE marches in my city in the late 90s and have worked at an AIDS support center in the NW.

The LGBT community is very active and also very aggressive against those who wish to conform their sexual urges in a way that the Church would support. I assume you also volunteer. So you must know this.
 
Volunteering with the sort of organization you describe and volunteering with Courage or Pax Christi are two very different things.
 
AllTHeBeads said:
And if the parents want Baptism isn’t that a good sign?
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It should be a good sign. But I have seen a few cases wherein the parent requesting baptism for their child had no real intention of raising the child Catholic. In such a case it is the parent who is denying the child by refusing catechesis. If a parent requests Baptism for their child, the parent has an obligation to teach the Faith.
 
What they do is more of an indication of the reason that the children shouldn’t be baptized.
 
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OraLabora said:
but some have a lifestyle completely at odds not only with Church teaching but with creating a healthy environment to raise a child (violence, drugs, etc.). On the other hand homosexuals are quite capable of creating a nurturing, healthy environment for a child
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Homosexuals are not immune from creating an unhealthy enviroment and how common are such things anyway?
 
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Wait… first off it isn’t the kid’s fault who is raising it. This child is being brought up in a spiritually challenging environment, should he/she be given every benefit possible as soon as possible? There are few things in life as important as baptism. Am I wrong here?
 
OraLabora said:
Where I live, in highly secularized Quebec, it is often the grandparents who have taken on the responsibility for their grandchildren’s baptism and religious education in the face of indifferent parents
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Depending on the relationship with the grandparents and the how far they are this might not be adequate. It would make more sense for grandparents to be the one asking the priest with the permission of the parents.
 
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