|
What’s
New With
It’s one of those Hallmark-card moments. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, assorted Aunts and Uncles gather around the baptismal font on a quiet Sunday afternoon to have the newest member of the family baptized. The baby, of course, is there too—sometimes crying, sometimes sleeping, always adorable. The ceremony is fairly short, and then the priest or deacon poses for pictures with the family before they head off for a celebration at home.
To find out what’s new with baptism, we need to go back to the 1970s. For some time, the bishops of the world had been concerned that adults who joined the Catholic Church were not being well prepared. Too often, they had as little as six weeks of “convert class” with a priest and then were privately baptized or received. Some met with their parish priest just once or twice. Adult baptism was treated as a strictly private affair, and the bishops believed that more representatives of the Church needed to be involved. The Vatican responded by instituting the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The RCIA is actually a series of rites an individual passes through on his or her way to becoming a full member of the Church. Along the way, they are educated and formed by the entire parish—pastor, staff, and parishioners alike. Those who need baptism formally enter into the Order of Catechumens, an ancient order of the Church that had died out by the Middle Ages in Europe. At the same time, the Church began to place more emphasis on the Great Easter Vigil and reclaimed its importance as the time for baptizing new adult Catholics. What does the RCIA have to do with infant baptism? Well, it meant a major shift in the way the Church thinks about the Sacrament for all age groups. Indeed, the RCIA became the model for how we think about the sacrament. Instead of infant baptism guiding our practice with adults, we began to take insights from the adult process in the RCIA and adapt it for use with children. Of course, we don’t ask infants to attend baptism classes! For Catholics baptized as infants, the catechumenate comes after the sacrament. But we do require parents of infants to attend some classes before the baptism is scheduled. This is a time for parents (and godparents) to learn the importance of the sacrament. They hear how necessary it is for them to attend Mass regularly and ensure that their children receive Catholic formation for the rest of their lives. Other parents share their experiences in raising Catholic children in a society that is, at best, indifferent to religious values and, at times, outright hostile to them. This baptismal preparation gives new parents an opportunity to explore their own relationship with Christ Jesus and his Church. Do they regularly participate at Mass, read their Bible, remember to pray? On the day of the actual baptism, how will they answer the question “What do you ask of God’s Church?” This fairly brief preparation time before infant baptism also gives parents a chance to discover whether they have missed some sacraments along the way. They are invited to consider receiving sacraments they never received due to family relocations or other reasons. They are asked to think about resolving any marital issues that might keep them from living in full conformity with the laws of the Church. Oftentimes, these are simple matters to rectify. Once children reach age 7, the Church believes the infant baptism process is not sufficient. Children at age 7 and over have reached “catechetical age,” that is, the age at which they can formally begin to learn their faith before they are baptized. They participate, along with their parents, in a process that is very similar to the RCIA for adults, but modified for their special needs. This process, like the adult one, can last anywhere from several months to a year or more, depending on the child. At Nativity, the RCIA for adults and the infant baptism process are handled by the Department of Faith Formation. If you have questions about these areas, call Vicki Hawkins or Pamela Emery at the Faith Formation Center at 689-9101.
Nativity
Catholic Church 813-689-9101
|
