Friends of ours have their DD christened catholic.
They weren't married & she wasn't catholic. The 2 god parents they chose weren't cetholic either, so they had an extra god father who was catholic. So their DD has 1 God mother & 2 God fathers (DH is one).
It is actually costomary as far as I know just to have one of each. My brother, sister & I were all christened catholic & have one of each.
Mum & dad had issues getting us christened as they were married in a garden rather than the catholic church, so the curch didn't view them as married & refused to do it.
The only reason we were don is coz there was a fill in preist with me & my brother was inly done coz I was.
When it came to my sister, the church wanted mum & dad to re marry in the church. They refused to do it til mum & dad were married in the eyes of the church.
Eventually though it was all ok & when my sister was one they finally agreed.
All churches IME have different policies. Its up to that particular church & that preist how things are done. My bro sis & I were done 25, 23, & 19 years ago, so most of them are alot more relaxed about it these days.
I always wanted to have my kids christened, but my DH doesn't have any beleifs & didn't want to do it. He did agree to us marrying in the catholic church though.
We had our DD baptised in the catholic church last year.
It was simple for us as we are both catholic, although I am not confirmed, and we were married in the same church we went to for the baptism. We don't attend mass.
You will have to have an interview with the priest but we found it very informal. I just phoned and asked to come and talk about getting it done. Our priest it very easy to talk to and open but there are rules all the same which he must stick to.
It is customary to have two godparents and you may have either sex or both. At least one of them must be a confirmed catholic. The other doesnt need to be catholic but the priest will want to talk to them first (to make sure they have christian values). I dont know if they check up on the confirmation through records though? we told him the name of the parish she was done in and he may have checked later although I doubt it. He did get our records out though while we were there. Mainly because I asked for a copy of my baptism certificate to have at home.
I have never been to a catholic baptism as part of a mass. They have all been seperate. Our priest preferred to do ours on a saturday as he has a travelling parish to minister to on sundays so he is busy all day. It took about 30mins, we had no hymns or readings as my family and most of our friends are not practicing. Instead he did a fantastic job of explaining the whatfors and whys of the ceremony and it was great for the notreligiousy people. He just said "leave it to me" and we did.
I think we only donated $150 for our ceremony.
You dont need a proper christening gown. You just need something white, it can be a special bib or cloth to lay on the baby during part of the ceremony.
It shouldnt be a problem being unmarried. My friend wasnt married when she had her children "done" LOL. Her partner isnt catholic either.
As for reasons? I explained that we are do not attend church but that we hold the values of the church and want our child to grow up with the structure ofthe church behind her. He was happy with that.
Good luck. Dont stress too much about the interview. They are there to help
Hi there
As has been mentioned, it greatly depends on the church that you will be attending.
In terms of Godparents, for my eldest DD we only had a godmother.
A friend of mine is having her 7 year old dd baptised soon. They are not married, but she just isn't going to mention it. When they filled in forms, she just said that she uses her maiden name.
I just want to encourage you to ring your local priest and have a chat about what you want to do - we have a local priest who pops in about twice a year to check up on our girls. DH is Greek Orthodox but we want the girls to be baptised Catholic - long boring story - BUT he has been fabulously supportive, providing information and is amazingly relaxed in regards to 'rules' etc.
I would think whomever you ring will be keen to have the opportunity to expand their parish.
All the big questions seem to have been answered so I am going to put my two cents in about the donations.
I asked our parish, and got the best answer I could have asked for, it is a donation and therefore donate what you can afford. We could barely afford $10 at the time so DS' godfather donated some money as well (bless his soul) and we forwarded many second hand and barely worn clothes that were in good condition to our parish.
We had DS baptism at The Easter Vigil last year which is one of the times most parishes expect 'large' donations because they only accept donations for the parish priest twice a year, at Christmas & Easter. I couldn't decide if it made me feel more, or less guilty for not being able to afford it.
Will it be a problem that I am not catholic? No it won't be a problem, I'm catholic, my df isn't catholic and we christened ds catholic.
Will our preferred god parent arrangement be a problem? Do all the god parents have to be confirmed catholics? 2 of our chosen are but 1 is Greek orthodox... We had to have 2 catholic godparent and the others it didn't matter. Ds has two godmothers and two godfathers.
Will it be a problem that DP and I aren't married? We weren't married and they didn't treat us any different then if we had been. My sister and brother also got their children christened catholic before they were married.
Can we choose whether the ceremony is held during mass or afterwards? And if afterwards, is it customary to attend mass beforehand? It depends on the church. Ours was afterwards and we didn't have to attend mass beforehand.
What is the go with donations? Is this the usual practice and how much is appropriate and how do you give it? It depends on the church. Ours was only $40.
Is it normal to be "interviewed" by the priest prior to booking? What are appropriate reasons to want to have your children baptised? You normally see the priest or attend a christening information day, which is usually under 1 hour.
Sounds like it shouldn't be too much of a problem to get him baptised and also DP's Grandmother is a member of the church we wish to go to so hopefully that will help and we won't be rejected! We are hoping to have the christening around July. SO I guess I'll make the call and enquire then!
Holly,
I would encourage you to phone the parish well before the date you want as they are often very busy and you may not get the day you want. Especially if you are planning for guests who have to travel. We have a small parish but were lucky to get the date we wanted. Also if they want you to attend a class they are often only run at certain times so you would have to wait for the next available one.
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