Why would my RCIA director need my birth certificate?

[FIU_student]

Hello and merry Christmas everybody,

I’m a college student living in Miami and I’ve been in the process of becoming a baptized christian for about a year now. It’s been wonderful finding both faith and the church and this site has been great. I haven’t posted much but I browse a lot.

I became a catechumen the Sunday before advent and hope to be baptized, confirmed, and receive the Eucharist this Easter. Most people in my RCIA class have been baptized already or in a different Christian community and are just going for the other sacraments.

For them my RCIA directors (who have been great) asked that they get their certificate of baptism or a letter saying they were baptized if their old church doesn’t issue those. This makes sense to me.

However, for the catechumens (did I pluralist that correctly?) they want a copy of our birth certificate. It isn’t a problem for me to get one, I just can’t imagine why the church would need it.

I should add that I have no reason to distrust the particular Catholics I’d be handing it over to, or the larger Church. That said, you can’t be too careful with your identity these days. It also contains personal information that’s not my own, such as both my parent’s social security numbers.

If anyone has an explanation for this it would really help me out.

Thanks and God bless.

 

[puzzleannie]

because the parish is obligated to keep an official record of your baptism, and issue you a certificate with that is a sealed certified copy of that record, which includes your date and place of birth and parents’ names, so we need the birth certificate for that. Since the baptismal record is also a legal document, and in many places can be used also for ID, the information must be correct and taken from an official source. Most parishes shred the copy they have taken of your birth certificate once the information has been entered on the sacramental register.

No birth certificate I have ever seen contains social security numbers of either parent or child, so that I question, and there should be no need for the parish to have or ask for SS numbers. Parish secretary affirms that birth certs. do not have SS numbers and she is the expert.

 

[anodos]

To prove you were born. Otherwise you would receive a conditional birthing, and that’s no fun.

 

[Julia_Mae]

because the parish is obligated to keep an official record of your baptism, and issue you a certificate with that is a sealed certified copy of that record, which includes your date and place of birth and parents’ names, so we need the birth certificate for that. Since the baptismal record is also a legal document, and in many places can be used also for ID, the information must be correct and taken from an official source. Most parishes shred the copy they have taken of your birth certificate once the information has been entered on the sacramental register.

Great answer. People new to the Church don’t realize that these are considered “legal documents” by the Church. You can be baptized over and over if you move from one Protestant church to another, and you can often rent a church regardless of affiliation for a wedding. The Catholic way is seriously different and something it takes time to get used to and also something not usually pointed out in RCIA.

 

[PJM]

=FIU student;8738942]Hello and merry Christmas everybody,

I’m a college student living in Miami and I’ve been in the process of becoming a baptized christian for about a year now. It’s been wonderful finding both faith and the church and this site has been great. I haven’t posted much but I browse a lot.

I became a catechumen the Sunday before advent and hope to be baptized, confirmed, and receive the Eucharist this Easter. Most people in my RCIA class have been baptized already or in a different Christian community and are just going for the other sacraments.

For them my RCIA directors (who have been great) asked that they get their certificate of baptism or a letter saying they were baptized if their old church doesn’t issue those. This makes sense to me.

However, for the catechumens (did I pluralist that correctly?) they want a copy of our birth certificate. It isn’t a problem for me to get one, I just can’t imagine why the church would need it.

I should add that I have no reason to distrust the particular Catholics I’d be handing it over to, or the larger Church. That said, you can’t be too careful with your identity these days. It also contains personal information that’s not my own, such as both my parent’s social security numbers.

If anyone has an explanation for this it would really help me out.

Thanks and God bless.

An informed guess would be to determine IF you were Baptized. BUT that said; call the Rectory and ASK you’re PASTOR, and allow him to explain it to you. That is the PRUDENT action.

God Bless,
Pat