What should I do about my children?

[po18guy]

By all means, baptise your children! Have none of this rubbish about only adults being baptised, because the Apostles advised to baptise entire “households”. Upon Catholic baptism, you argee to raise the children in the faith. If it is good and true enough for you, that is enough.

Love your wife as yourself, participate in all of the applicable sacraments, live your faith as it grows to maturity, and your wife will be drawn to it. The Catholic Church simply has more of everything: Sacraments, Sacred Scripture, world presence, adherants, races, languages, devotions, types of prayer, etc. than any of the others. It isn’t called Universal (“catholic”) for nothing!

Praying for you, my brother.

 

[OneAugustKnight]

1. If the time comes and they do want to go with her I’m going to have a serious problem on my hands, and 2. If I let them go with her I have another serious problem on my hands with not keeping my oath when they got baptized… Is there any way they can be baptized somewhere other than my parish?? like maybe another denomination where the Sacrament is still valid??? The deal is, I will take them to Church with me as long as I can, but if the time comes, I cant exactly say "No you’re not going to take them with you " …Thanks for the help guys!!!

1. If they want to go with her maybe you can make a deal that you all go to her church together and then they all go to Mass with you also.
2. Anywhere that they are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit it will be considered a valid baptism by the Church.
3. In case of emergency (impending death) they can be baptized by a lay person, even yourself if necessary.

 

[Debra_C]

As a Catholic we have some obligations here. One is to baptize our children. Another is to teach them the faith. It is not your obligation to force them to stay in the Catholic Church. You can’t make anyone believe no matter how much you may wish to. The Church does not expect this of you. What the Church expects is that your children will be catechized, that you will set an example of what it is to be Catholic, and that you will make every effort to instill in them good Christian values. If they ultimately decide to be Baptist, Muslim, or even Buddhist when they grow up, that is theirs to decide. Eventually it has to be their own decision. They don’t stay kids forever.

It is true that any Christian (trinitarian) baptism is valid. However, if you intend to raise them Catholic, you should baptize them Catholic. Otherwise you aren’t being particularly honest when you present them for baptism. Aside from this, many Protestant Churches don’t view baptism as a sacrament. Most don’t believe cleansing from original sin is neccessary. It is seen as merely a symbol of one’s choice to become Christian. Some teach that baptism is only a symbol for those who are weak in faith.

Catholic teaching is that through baptism we are indelibly marked as belonging to Christ, we are cleansed of original sin (and personal sin, if any), and we are infused with special graces which help us to find our way home to God. This is why we baptize infants instead of waiting until they are of age to choose for themselves. Wouldn’t you want the appropriate Liturgical prayers from your Catholic Tradition said for your children at this important moment of their lives? Don’t you want as much of God’s grace present to them and in their lives as possible from the outset?

It is good that you have these misgivings–it shows that you understand the seriousness of the obligation you would be undertaking. But understand, no matter what faith you baptize them in, you will never be able to control what they choose as they become adults. As they come of age it must be their own choice to continue in the faith or not. We all do the best we can as parents, and then we entrust our beloved little ones to God and hope they do not stray too far.

Of course it is complicated when spouses are of different faiths. But many Catholics have undertaken this same challenge quite successfully. You are by no means alone in your difficulties.