I
iloveangels
Guest
No, because obviously a 2 week old child is not an 8th grade child. An 8th grade child can tell you things about his beliefs and intentions that a 2 week old child cannot.
However concerning baptism, that doesn’t mean we should be baptizing anybody who shows up and requests it. The parents should have to do some things preparatory to a newborn’s baptism to demonstrate that the child will be raised in a Catholic home and have some hope of living out the promises that are made for it at baptism. For instance, there should be a program that expecting parents enter that is really easy but tracks weekly mass attendance. A child whose parents do not regularly attend weekly mass over an extended period of time, like 15 or 20 weeks straight with whatever holy days are included in that time frame, should not be baptized until they do.