Baptism
The Baptism of a child is a grace filled moment for any family. It is also a special moment in the life of any parish.
Baptism is a chance for you to tell your brand new son or daughter how important their relationship with God and the whole human family is to you. As parents you promise to keep that relationship alive by promising to continue worshipping with the parish family, particularly by regularly celebrating the Eucharist at Sunday Mass.
You also promise to nurture that relationship by your own example, in word and deed, of love, commitment and faithfulness.
Without doubt, this is a serious, life-long commitment and it should not be made lightly but DON’T PANIC you do not make it alone. By embracing active participation in the life of the Parish we open ourselves up to the gifts that God presents to us in the form of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Your child will experience Christian love through, you, your family, your friends and our parish. We are privileged that God will use us for such an important task.
By Baptism we are made a new creation and are incorporated into the Body of Christ. Baptism is the gateway to the sacraments, and points forward to Confirmation and the Eucharist. We grow into maturity and commitment to Christ as part of our parish community and the Universal Church.
The Rite of Baptism presumes both parents to be taking part in the ceremony, assisted by well chosen godparents, that the child is given a Christian name, i.e. the name of a saint, and that the conferring of this sacrament implies a firm commitment on the part of the parents to a faithful and loyal practice of the faith.
It is not our intention to make access to the Sacrament of Baptism in our parish difficult, however we must balance being approachable and welcoming with making sure that the day you child is Baptised means all that it should mean for your family, your child and our parish.
For this reason we offer the following:
- Infants and children who reside within the Parish boundary are normally baptised by the Parish Priest or an assistant priest or deacon.
- Children who have reached the age of discretion (about 7 years old) are not normally baptised until they have completed a course of RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation) formation.
- For those over 14 years of age the permission of the Bishop is needed before a course of Christian Initiantion leads to Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion.
- The first promise parents make at Baptism is, ‘to bring our child up in the practise of the Faith.’ This means promising to bring your child to Mass each week. Ideally, before you consider Baptism regular participation in the worship of our parish community should be part of your family life.
- Baptism is by its nature a community celebration. Therefore, Sunday is the day for baptism and is in the context of parish worship, either within Mass or with a representative group of people.
- There is no charge for a baptism in our parish as you are already contributing to the weekly collection. If you would like to make a donation it will be gratefully accepted.
- Any priest asked to perform a Baptism has to satisfy himself that, ‘there is a well-founded hope that the child will be brought up in the Catholic religion‘ (Code of Canon Law #868). If this is not present Baptism will be deferred.
- We do not baptise a person who lives outside of our parish boundaries without a very good pastoral reason. If such a reason exists written permission from the Parish Priest of the parish in which the person resides is needed.
- We do not baptise a person so that they can gain admission to school.
- A preparation course for the parents of a child requiring baptism is the norm.
Application for Baptism is made in the first instance to Fr Paul, usually in person following Sunday or weekday Mass
