To christen DS Catholic or CofE?

[TinaTop]

I was christened Catholic and DH is CofE. We got married in our lovely village church which is also CofE, and we attend occasional services there e.g. Easter and Christmas.

We'd love to have DS christened in our village church but have the inevitable concerns about school admission. The best schools in our area are Catholic, therefore it would be better for DS to be christened Catholic at the (big, modern, soulless) church in the nearest town (which we will never attend again).

I'm torn between wanting a lovely little ceremony in our village church that we actually attend, and wanting DS to have the best educational opportunities in the future... WWYD?

Cathlic of course.. the one true faith and may be you could have a remarriage in a catholic church whilst you are at it....

Could you not find an architecturally acceptable RC church? They do exist. There are some absolutely gorgeous ones around.

Or take him home - we had our first baptised at an RC church closer to both families to save the relatives a journey.

Not intending to have a party but don't see why my specific beliefs should prevent DS getting the best education available and studying alongside children who've been raised with good morality and high standards of behaviour. In many cases the teachers have only been baptised Catholic in order to work in a school with well behaved pupils.

This is not only offensive, but wrong.

You need to have a long, hard think.

Choose a school based on your beliefs, not a belief based on your school preference.

One of the least Christian sentiments you could possibly express. I think you need to examine your own faith before making any decision for your child.

@Buxbaum expressed the entire point perfectly!

There are plenty of "naughty" children at Catholic schools (I have heard of them smoking cannabis on the school playing fields at one). There are also non-involved parents, they just go to mass regularly.

The big advantage Catholic schools have is that they can put informal pressure on parents via the Parish Priests.

My local Catholic school is full of Catholic kids. They are offspring of a local illegal traveller site.

Their behaviour is "interesting" to say the least. Gorgeous kids but no boundaries whatsoever. Be careful what you wish for OP.

On the other hand my autistic son went to a Catholic school which was full of all kinds of children across the board. They had their fair share of issues too. People fought to get their kids in there as it was an Outdtanding school...
Then OFSTED came in a dropped it to Requires Improvement. The horrified screeching of parents like the OP could be heard for miles.

I hasten to add I had no complaints about the school which was fabulously supportive to my DS,

*or just get Christened by both faith to cover all your bases"

Not possible. Unless you lie to one/both priests. Which is possibly one of the worse ways of bringing your DC into the congregation*

Probably outing, but definitely possible, and with no need to resort to lying! When our DCs were baptised, we had both RC and CoE priests taking part in the service, and jointly pouring the water. We had them both present when we were married, too. But as numerous posters have pointeed out, when it comes to getting into a RC school, regularity of church attendance will be expected, and not just in the few weeks/months prior to starting school.

This is really depressing. You baptise/ christen your child in the faith that you live and practise. Don't stand up making vows you don't mean.

If you baptise your child in the Catholic Church you are making vows in front of God to bring them up in the Catholic faith and making the godparents promise to support them in this faith too. If you are actually a Christian who lives the faith you profess to have, you wouldn't be considering this.

We are Christians otherwise we wouldn't go to church at all and we wouldn't celebrate Christian traditions such as Christmas and Easter.

The traditions pre-date Christianity, which is one reason why non Christians have no problem celebrating them either. Buying my child a chocolate egg at easter is a pagan act for us.

A lot depends on where you are.

I'm cradle Catholic though pretty well detached these days. DW was raised as an unbaptised Methodist but is quite atheist now. One DC has been baptised but the other hasn't.

But the area where we live has a low proportion of Catholics and there is no way on God's earth that I would have sent our DC to either the Catholic primary or high schools, because their reputation is frankly appalling.

If you want DC to go to Catholic schools then you are going to have to walk the walk and talk the talk -- Mass every Sunday without fail, get yourselves on the Standing Order donations list, join the choir or be a lay reader etc. Although I am pretty detached in my head, that I would have done had my children's future depended on it, even if the Anglicans had a prettier church.

You've said it yourself, you're never going to attend the Catholic Church again. The suggestion that you might want a Catholic baptism with that knowledge is laughable.

In case the posts before haven't made it clear - baptism is a promise to follow and teach religion and beliefs. You're treating it like a pick and mix 'oh, I like that building' 'but the schools are better' 'we turn up for the big occasions' - in football terms you'd be regarded as a plastic, fair-weather glory-hunter, it is very offensive and I don't even want to give you a

For what it's worth, I'm Catholic, my children are baptised Catholic and they're both going to the local primary school. It's the closest for us to walk to and is very nice. I also won't be sending them on a long commute to the Catholic colleges when they're 11, unless they desperately want to. They can join with their peers in the local schools. We attend church frequently, and I'd like to think we demonstrate its values and represent it constantly. Our faith is something we hold dear, not a bargaining chip.

@ILikeMyChickenFried @Bechetdiagnosed @ScienceIsTruth - loving your posts, by the way..!

In fact, despite the irritating OP, this has been a really good thread for showing the diversity of religious and atheists who are happy to demonstrate respect and courtesy to differing faith and beliefs.

So the title of this thread is misleading, it has nothing to do with religion. Its just pure naked cut throat bigotry. Getting ahead by walking on the backs of disadvantaged scum children. That's religion for you.

No - thats WANKERS for you.

This is really depressing. You baptise/ christen your child in the faith that you live and practise. Don't stand up making vows you don't mean.

Exactly that ThoughtFox

As a practising Christian I have no objections to people who disagree with me regarding worship, or indeed , regarding the existence of God - but I dogged angry at the manipulative machinations of some individuals who seem to feel an entitlement to take advantage of other people's beliefs - perhaps to the disadvantage of the people who hold those beliefs. A child from a deeply believing family might lose out on a place because of OP claiming that place for her child.

As others have said - why not campaign for ALL children tone given the same facilities etc, rather than worming manipulating the system?

I'm loving your user name Soren!

I think anyone who gets their kids christened solely for educational reasons undermines other people's beliefs in religion.

'I'm here to have a personal relationship with God' versus 'I'm here because Mrs Smith at Fluffy Bunny RC Primary will drill my kid into passing the entrance exams at Difficult Tiger Grammar School'.

It's an unbelievably hypocritical situation and a sad indictment of our education system.

Thank you, @ILikeMyChickenFried! I've been tempted to change it lately, but I don't think I can give it up now!