Newborn babies and children have always been baptized in the Church when Catholic parents wish to share with them the Catholic faith and way of life.
Normally, your neighborhood Catholic church, that is, your home parish will respond positively to your request to have your child baptized.
To have your child baptized at St.Therese Parish
1. You live in one of our four neighborhoods OR you have an up-to-date record of consistent worship here on Sundays.
2. If you live outside Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, San Carlos, or Lake Murray and you are not currently or consistently making St. Therese Parish your Sunday place of worship but would like your child baptized here, simply ask your own neighborhood Catholic parish church (your "home" parish) to prepare you for the sacrament and then send us notification that you are ready. We’ll be happy to then schedule the baptism here.
2. Along with your example of living every day your Catholic Faith, you can give assurance that your child will be inspired by you and your godparents to practice the Catholic faith.
3. Single parents who likewise live their Catholic faith can do much to inspire their children.
4. Couples, who live together as parents without a Catholic marriage, should be open to considering the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony for themselves and God’s grace in family life.
The godparents must be
When a proposed godparent doesn’t have all their sacraments or doesn't practice the Catholic faith, then what?
In short, simply because someone is a family member or a close friend, they may not always be qualified or ready to become godparents.
Instead, they might otherwise be invited to stand alongside a godparent as a “Christian Witness” and then later be acknowledged by the Church as godparent when they have fulfilled the basic qualifications outline above
Sometimes you may be asked to be a godparent to a child about to be baptized, and a church asks you to provide a letter from your parish to vouch you are in good standing. For a Catholic to be qualified as a godparent, they must be baptized and confirmed, attending weekly Sunday Mass, and if they are living with a partner, they are in a recognized Catholic marriage.
During a baptism, you will be asked to make a public promise and a commitment to your Catholic Faith before witnesses. You should therefore be able to make a public promise and a commitment to your Catholic Faith before your local or home parish.
If St. Therese is your local parish that you would call your home parish, we will ask you to make a formal commitment and offer support to this parish every Sunday by regular church attendance. Doing so will help put into context the commitment and support you will be offering to the child being baptized. In short, you are being asked to be a “godparent” to your local parish too. Talk to one of the clergy after Sunday Mass.
If you are having difficulty finding a qualified candidate, know that a godparent does not have to be always physically present during the actual baptism. If, for example, the godparent is not able to attend the baptism of your child, another family member or friend (who may not otherwise be able to be the actual godparent) may stand in as their official proxy.
If you have a Godparent in mind who might qualify for this great responsibility and meet all the qualifications except the Sacrament of Confirmation, they should personally contact their own local church and inquire about how to complete their own Sacraments of Initiation.
Baptisms for the children of local parishioners and families who consistently worship at St. Therese on Sundays will normally be scheduled during the weekend.
Families from outside the area who attend other parish churches and wish to have their child baptized here are asked to secure a letter of permission from their own pastor verifying that they are known by him or their parish and able to fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of a Catholic godparent.
Sometimes a parish church may ask you for a letter of good standing. They might ask you to also attend a godparent and/or baptism class. Here at St. Therese, we often begin every baptism with a short interactive seminar about the sacrament along with describing the roles and responsibilities of Christian parents and godparents. By attending Sunday Mass and one of our scheduled baptisms, you can often receive a certificate that you attended the in-house seminar and witnessed a baptism.
Please confirm with your home parish if they might require additional steps from you. You may then call our parish office and inquire when the next scheduled seminar and baptism will take place.
Parishes often receive inquiries from grandparents about how they might have their grandchildren baptized. They often make the request themselves because the parents of the children no longer attend church regularly or have no relationship with their own parish church or faith community.
Sadly, and for many reasons, some young families do not have a personal relationship with Christ fostered through the Sacraments of the Church, especially through Sunday Mass, Confession, or the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony.
A WORD FOR WORRIED GRANDPARENTS
Understandably, grandparents worry about their children and their grandchildren in these circumstances. It is important to remember that this is often not a reflection of the commitment of grandparents to their own faith in God and in the Sacraments.
When their own children become adults and when they also become parents, personal responsibility for nurturing their faith now falls upon them. Grandparents often can only encourage their children, especially when they leave home, to find out where their local Catholic parish church is, attend Sunday Mass there and build up a healthy relationship with one faith community.
However, if a young family does not take the initiative to actively practice their Catholic faith through a commitment to their local church, baptism of their children doesn't make much sense until they can. A church will be understandably reluctant to invite anyone to be baptized without a demonstration that they are already committed to the Sunday Sacraments and actively supportive of their local parish community.
So, if you are concerned that your grandchildren are not baptized, your first concern might be that your own son or daughter has not anchored their Christian faith to the stability of a local parish community. Help them and encourage them to do this first, and then, the waters of baptism will naturally flow freely.