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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