How do I get my baby baptised

[Grassgreendashhabi]

Hi my little one is 14 months. I am catholic, I don't go to church but 100% believe in God

I often pray by myself and often talk to God

I want to have my little one baptised

Will I have to actively be going to church for this , I know her soul would go to heaven if anything happened but I just think it's the right thing to do

How do I go about it??

[Ragwort]

You contact your local Church and ask for your child to be baptised. You do not need to be a regular church attender.

[LibertyPrintShoes]

Am not a catholic but I would approach your local Catholic Church and speak to the priest in charge. You can phone the church office and have a chat with them and they'll probably want to meet with you to help you with your decision. There might be some preparation involved with classes etc but they'll tell you the details. Good luck!

[MyBreadIsEggy]

I had my Dd baptised (Catholic) but it was in the church on the RAF station where we live, so it works a little differently. We had a few informal meetings with the Padre (military priest) beforehand. But my cousin had all of her children's baptised in her local Catholic Church and had to wait a while because she's only recently moved to the area, and the priest wanted her to attend so many masses before he would baptise the youngest children.
All you can do is ask and see what the priest says

[RestlessTraveller]

Can you be Catholic and not attend church?

[reallyanotherone]

Yes, nip down to your local church and ask the priest.

It will depend on the priest. Some are of the mindset that they can't afford to be fussy and will baptise anyone who wants it :)

Some will require a minimum attendance first. This is especially likely in areas with good catholic schools, as priests are wise to parents suddenly finding catholicism at about your lo's age when they are starting to look at school options....

[LynetteScavo]

Many, many Catholics don't often attend mass regularly.

Speak to the person in the church office or phone the priest - there will be a number on the website.I popped in to our church office to ask about baptism, the Preist happened t be there and told me I'd left it long enough and booked me in to the next available time. I went along to one meeting with other parents who were having DC baptised.

[Iamthegreatest1]

Is the purpose of Catholic baptism so that your soul goes to heaven rather than a public profession of faith in Christ? That's interesting.

[ApocalypseSlough]

Golden that's brutal! What sort of church was it?

[Iamthegreatest1]

I'm assuming the OP is baptised as she said she's Catholic.

[Buttwing]

I would go to mass and ask the priest at the end. You dont have to regularly attended at our church but when you enquire the priest gives you a form to fill in and says "oh just drop it back at mass next week" ie it would be nice if you came a couple of times!

[RNBrie]

Do you have a church in mind? If so, see if they have a website, the details for how to arrange a Baptism will probably be on there.

If you don't have a church in mind then Google where your local Catholic churches are and check out their websites, maybe go to a few masses and then speak to the priest.

[Buttwing]

Oh and no meetings at our church either. The priest/ deacon comes to the house and has a chat but I think part of this is check you live where you say you do as our church only baptises children in the parish there is huge competition for the primary school places.
He didn't come round for my last one getting baptised but he was dc4, my older children are at the school and he sees us at mass so he said he thought we "knew the score!"

[starpatch]

Coming at this from a different place and finding this thread interesting. I'm basically wanting to attend a church with DS but being told we should both get baptised first. He is 4 and already has a school place for September but possibly they might mistakenly think this is about school places. Does anyone mind telling me what I as a mother should believe for a C of E baptism? Ie I'm not really sure what I believe about the resurrection. we already attend another church that doesn't believe in baptism.

[thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts]

I'm bit surprised that a C of E church is insisting on baptism for parents before they start attending. Does the church have an Alpha course or similar for you to go along to and explore some of the basics?

[mathsmum314]

Genuine question.
You believe in God but you dont attend church regularly? Why is it not ok for your DC to do the same. Why the desire to force your DC into something you dont participate in?

[starpatch]

thanks I don't think they are insisting on baptism first just recommending it. The website stated they have a sunday school from around 4 so I thought this might be a possibility. The reality is their sunday school is much more informal I think than that sounds (like maybe a parent rota and they wouldn't trust me to be on it if I'm not baptised?). So the vicar was a bit thinking I am after free childcare which really isn't what this is about for me. Anyway there is another C of E church I already have links to. So I could take my ds to the other one but this one is the one we are actually in the parish for. So food for thought for me.

[ZippyNeedsFeeding]

I'm Catholic too. Priests vary about how strict they are about attendance, the only way to find out is to ask. Ours doesn't mind too much, although we are regular churchgoers anyway.

[raisedbyguineapigs]

It depends on how strict the church is and in some cases how popular the local Catholic school is. in my old church, the parents had to attend church and go to some classes. As far as I can remember, Catholics used to believe that an unbaptosed baby went to Purgatory but they changed that because it was offensive

[BoxofSnails]

starpatch that's a very strange attitude from that church, I'd want to know why. For an adult it's a public profession of faith, of turning from sin and the devil to Christ as saviour. The C of E is a broad church, that allows for but doesn't push infant baptism, there is a service of thanksgiving that allows parents to have a service of thanks and welcome whilst leaving baptism for their child when they are ready for a personal profession of faith. 4 is a little young to make the promises for himself, does your son have a child's faith in God?
I'd ask some more - and go to the church in a different parish if you are more comfortable there.