Have any gay parents managed to get their children baptised in the Catholic Church?

[OrangeSprout]

Hi

We are a same sex couple but would like our children to be baptised into the Catholic Church? Are we likely to run into any problems? We both have Catholic backgrounds and we know at school that homosexuality was a huge problem but times have rapidly moved on since then and I wonder what the rules would be now?

thank you

I can't imagine that being ok, rightly or wrongly. The Pope sees homosexual acts as a sin.

Why do you want your child baptised into the Catholic Church?

@BoohooWoohoo " I walk past an Anglican Church which has a noticeboard outside and one of the posters specifically says that they don't judge and welcome all kinds of background including people who are gay."

You won't find a Catholic Church that does that. Not worth looking.

If it's to get into a specific school, I can understand. But baptising a child in a religion which openly condemns who you are, seems odd to me

I was a practising Catholic until my eldest child was 10. Many of the priests come over from Africa and hold views which would have been outdated/offensive in the 80s.

If you try to join the Catholic Church, buckle up for criticism, judgement and soul destroying misery.

I don't know where you live, but Middlesbrough Diocese has an LGBT+ outreach ministry. It's properly inclusive, not trying to lure people in and turn them straight. There might be something similar in your area, or the Middlesbrough team might be able to give some advice.

https://www.lgbtmiddlesbroughcatholic.org.uk/

If it's for a particular school then that is appalling. Bad enough that people who don't believe in god do this. For people to want their child to be a member of a faith that considers their parents irredeemable sinners is hideous.

I think it must be possible. My DS goes to a Catholic primary school that is the most oversubscribed school in our borough and never gets beyond the Catholic criteria for admission and one of his classmates has two dads.

🙄 What a load of bullshit on this thread!

Priests will baptise children of unmarried couples and same sex couples, and pretty much anyone seeking baptism. It is about welcoming the child into the Christian community, not the sins of the parents. Baptism is about the child, not the parents.

Your first step is to talk to your parish priest or deacon or church secretary. Google the church phone number or check out the website. Baptism information will be on the website and it will probably include a line about telephoning to confirm a date with the parish secretary and book baptism classes. If there isn’t a website, telephone and they can tell you the procedure.

If you want a baptism outside your own parish, there will be some hoops to jump through so it is best to get in early and speak to the church.

My own DC were baptized despite my marriage not being recognized by the church. It was a very easy process. And don’t worry about baptism classes - they are really just a formality (and there is no test at the end).

But why would anyone want to get their child baptised into a religion that sees their sexuality and marriage as a "sin"?

@hadaye, well, the OP clearly has her reasons. She may wish to share them or, given the number of people questioning her sanity for wanting this, she may not.

Haha some really helpful comments thank you….as for the rest of you, mind your own business, I’ve no interest I justifying myself to you.

I was a godparent this year in a Catholic Church (I am Catholic) and the other two godparents were a gay couple. Priest was extremely welcoming to them, which did surprise me as he was from the older generation of Catholic Priests

, I spent my catholic childhood in churches hearing how abhorrent gay people were. being in that sort of environment would be damaging for your children to hear about you as their parents.

I am the black-sheep non-Catholic in my Catholic family. Just to do baptisms or weddings not at their home church because another was more conveniently located to extended family, people had to get a referral from their parish priest to verify they were active members. I know several were also required to attend weekly preparation meetings on top of Sunday services in the months leading up to the event. You couldn’t just show up and ask for a sacrament, you had to really participate and prepare ahead of time.

I know not all parishes are the same so this may have been regional and you might not run into any problems.

@DifficultBloodyWoman

'🙄 What a load of bullshit on this thread! Priests will baptise children of unmarried couples and same sex couples, and pretty much anyone seeking baptism. It is about welcoming the child into the Christian community, not the sins of the parents. Baptism is about the child, not the parents. '

I am sorry but the 'sins of the parents?' WTF?

This is exactly why although I was raised as a catholic I now have nothing to do with a religion that goes on about same sex or unmarried couples being 'sinners'...

Frankly OP, why would you want anything to do with a religion that is openly against the person that you are and the person that you love.

To me that makes zero sense.

You also don't want these harmful, old fashioned and completely unacceptable messages about gay people, or women for that matter, to get into your child's mind.

A religion who teaches to hate people because of who they love is not worth following...

Ireland, culturally deeply Catholic, became the first country in the world to legal gay marriage by referendum in 2015.

At baptism we renounce our own sins and satan as we welcome our child into the church. The Catholic Church believes that homosexuality is a sin so it's tricky.
Is it still the case that divorced women can't take communion?

I know lesbians with kids baptised and confirmed in the Catholic church. They're culturally catholic , at least one parent is, and go to a catholic school.

Funny how two such patriarchal countries legalised gay marriage whilst still condemning women to death rather than grant basic reproductive rights. Stonewall routinely hold Malta up as a model of human rights whilst women cannot get basic and even lifesaving reproductive care. Its almost as if patriarchies are quite happy to be liberal appearing when it benefits men.

As regards the OP - I have known gay couples with RC baptized children and with children attending RC schools, along side children whose parents are not married, who are divorced and in other supposedly non sanctioned relationships. Baptism is about the child, not the parents.

It looks like they would find a home and hopefully some answers at the Farm St church in Mayfair. It’s the base for LGBT outreach in the Catholic Church and they hold masses twice a month.

https://sites.google.com/view/lgbt-ca-w/home

Priests will baptise children of unmarried couples and same sex couples, and pretty much anyone seeking baptism. It is about welcoming the child into the Christian community, not the sins of the parents.

When the child is older, they might well wonder why their parents chose to have them baptised into a religion which regards their parents' whole relationship as a sin. What kind of institution says to a child 'Yep, we'll accept you, but not your parents, because we think they are bad'?

I am sorry but the 'sins of the parents?' WTF?

The Catholic Church teaches that we are ALL sinners.

It doesn’t discriminate in that sense. 😜

The concept of sin in catechism is not the same as in our everyday conversation.

Direct your outrage elsewhere and respect the OP’s choice in the matter.

For people to want their child to be a member of a faith that considers their parents irredeemable sinners is hideous.

The Catholic Church actively teaches that no one is beyond redemption.

There are many, many, many things that you can criticize in the Church.

This isn’t one of them.

Or do you just think that the OP isn’t woman-ing and lesbian-ing properly?

As always 'pick your priest carefully'. Many many years ago (I'm in my 50s) my mother had to confess tot he priest she was on the pill, she was asked if her husband agreed and as he did he gave her a couple of hail Marys and told her she never had to confess this sin again.

OP good luck with your baby and finding a priest that will baptise. If not C of E baptism is valid in the RC church.

Personally I have a number of issues with the RC church, one of which is that the baptism ceremony includes an exorcism of the baby,

@DifficultBloodyWoman

''The Catholic Church actively teaches that no one is beyond redemption. ''

Again, you are suggesting that a gay person would need ''redemption'' which implies there is something wrong about their lifestyle to start with.

''Or do you just think that the OP isn’t woman-ing and lesbian-ing properly?''

No idea of what you are on about with this...