Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

Requirements For Baptism

A reader sends in an e-mail from someone who says:

My friend has some questions about baptizing his
new baby girl.  He wants to know can you have
your baby baptized at a Catholic church if:

  1. Dad is a lapsed Catholic
  2. Mom is a lapsed Presbyterian
  3. The parents don’t belong to a local church
  4. The parents want to get his baby baptized at a Catholic
    church on vacation in Oregon

I think my friend is at a cross-roads in his faith and I’m
trying to encourage him to get back to his Catholic
roots.  What do you think??

Okay! Let’s whip out our little friend, the Code of Canon Law. It provides:

Can.  868 ยง1. For an infant to be baptized licitly:

1/ the parents or at least one of them or the person
who legitimately takes their place must consent;

2/ there must be a founded hope that the infant will
be brought up in the Catholic religion; if such hope is altogether lacking, the
baptism is to be delayed according to the prescripts of particular law after
the parents have been advised about the reason [SOURCE].

As you can see, there is nothing in the requirements that, strictly speaking, rejects any of the four things in the fact pattern named by the e-mailer.

The fact that neither of the parents is an active Catholic at the moment is not per se an obstacle since what is strictly speaking required is their consent, not their own religious status.

HOWEVER, there is also the requirement of a founded hope (not a pie-in-the-sky hope) that the child will be raised as a Catholic, and this is where we run into a problem. Parishes will definitely want to know how founded the hope is of the child being raised Catholic if neither of the parents are practicing Catholics. Will they take the child to Mass? How do we know this if neither of them goes to Mass? Will they make sure that the child is catechized in the faith? Will they make sure that the child is confirmed and makes her first confession and first Communion at the proper times? If they’re both completely disconnected from parish life, how are they going to fulfill these responsibilities? Will they even know when it’s time for them? What will the practical arrangements be for fulfilling them? Just how strong is their commitment on these points?

As a result, though there is no absolute requirement that one of the parents be Catholic, the fact that neither is an active Catholic is likely to pose a practical barrier to their providing the kind of founded hope that the parish needs for the child’s Catholic rearing.

The logical solution is for the parents to examine their hearts and recommit themselves to the practice of the Christian faith. In particular, the husband should take the child’s need for baptism as a sign that God is calling him back to his faith. He should go to confession and resume life as an active Catholic. It would also be ideal if the wife were to investigate the possibility of becoming Catholic, primarily for her own sake but also to present the child with parents who are united in faith.

I hope they’ll giv prayerful consideration to these things.

As to getting the child baptized while on vacation. I assume that the reason they wish to do this is because they will be vacationing near family and it would make it easier for family members to attend the baptism. (There may be "destination weddings" these days, but I’ve never heard of a "destination baptism," so I assume that family is the reason.)

Again, strictly speaking there is no prohibition on this. However, there may be practical obstacles. Normally baptisms are performed in the parish to which the parents (or the Catholic parent) belongs. There are also typically preliminary sessions that the parents need to attend to help them understand and prepare for the event of baptism.

All I can recommend is that the parents explain the situation and ask what kind of arrangement may be possible. I don’t know that there is one, but then the most important thing is that the child get baptized, not where this occurs or who can more easily attend. The baptism is for the sake of the child, not anybody else, so the parents should be flexible on this point if no solution emerges that would allow the baptism to take place where and when they would like.

Hope this helps, and God bless!

Let’s pray that God will shower his blessings on the child and her family!

20

Now . . . What Was The Nutritional Supplement I Was Going To Buy?

Folic_acidThis just in: 800 micrograms of folic acid (a B-vitamin) appears to help memory and may prevent age-related decline in mental function.

GET THE STORY.

This isn’t the only benefit of folic acid, though. It also helps prevent heart attacks and treat depression, epilepsy, and a variety of other conditions.

It’s also known that women who take folic acid have fewer children with spina bifida and related birth defects. The method of action that produces this is not known, however. (It may help the child develop so that it doesn’t get the defect–or it may increase the miscarriage rate for children with the defect. Nobody knows for sure.) And so (unlike the U.S. government) I can’t recommend that all women of childbearing age simply take it.

If you’re a guy, though, or a woman not likely to become pregnant, folic acid may be a useful nutritional tool.

LEARN MORE ABOUT IT.

GET MY FAVORITE NUTRITIONAL THERAPY BOOK.

Now . . . What Was The Nutritional Supplement I Was Going To Buy?

This just in: 800 micrograms of folic acid (a B-vitamin) appears to help memory and may prevent age-related decline in mental function.

GET THE STORY.

This isn’t the only benefit of folic acid, though. It also helps prevent heart attacks and treat depression, epilepsy, and a variety of other conditions.

It’s also known that women who take folic acid have fewer children with spina bifida and related birth defects. The method of action that produces this is not known, however. (It may help the child develop so that it doesn’t get the defect–or it may increase the miscarriage rate for children with the defect. Nobody knows for sure.) And so (unlike the U.S. government) I can’t recommend that all women of childbearing age simply take it.

If you’re a guy, though, or a woman not likely to become pregnant, folic acid may be a useful nutritional tool.

LEARN MORE ABOUT IT.

GET MY FAVORITE NUTRITIONAL THERAPY BOOK.

In Memoriam: Cardinal Sin

Cardinal_sinThe man with the best name in the college of cardinals (or the worst name, depending on how you look at it) has passed: Cardinal Sin has died. He was 76 years old.

Though under the age 80 cutoff for voting in conclaves, Cardinal Sin was too ill to make the ourney to Rome to participate in the election of Benedict XVI last April. Now he has followed John Paul II into the Great Beyond.

Cardinal Sin was an important figure in the effort to cultivate democracy and better government in the Philippines, though the road was rough.

After the fall of the dictator Marcos, government corruption remained high. "We got rid of Ali Baba, but the forty thieves remained," Cardinal Sin commented.

Requiescat in pacem.

GET THE STORY.

MORE.

St. Catherine’s Library

St_catherine_monasterySt. Catherine’s Monastery (left), also known as the Monastery of the Transfiguration,  is the world’s oldest monastery.

Built in the 6th century at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Egypt (or at least the traditional location of Mt. Sinai, since we’re not sure of its exact location), the monastery houses the largest collection of ancient Christian manuscripts besides the collection belonging to the Vatican.

Now the monks there are using hi-tech means to try to read some of the more faded manuscripts in its collection.

The monastery’s librarian, Fr. Jusin (a fellow Texan! Yee-haw!) has been digitizing manuscripts with a camera capable of 72 megapixel resolution. Many will be online later this year.

The process holds out the prospects of helping us better understand the history of the text of the Bible (including potential new evidence regarding the original reading of uncertain passages) and may even turn up previously unknown texts, as at Oxyrhynchus.

GET THE STORY.

MORE ON ST. CATHERINE’S MONASTERY.

St. Catherine's Library

St. Catherine’s Monastery (left), also known as the Monastery of the Transfiguration,  is the world’s oldest monastery.

Built in the 6th century at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Egypt (or at least the traditional location of Mt. Sinai, since we’re not sure of its exact location), the monastery houses the largest collection of ancient Christian manuscripts besides the collection belonging to the Vatican.

Now the monks there are using hi-tech means to try to read some of the more faded manuscripts in its collection.

The monastery’s librarian, Fr. Jusin (a fellow Texan! Yee-haw!) has been digitizing manuscripts with a camera capable of 72 megapixel resolution. Many will be online later this year.

The process holds out the prospects of helping us better understand the history of the text of the Bible (including potential new evidence regarding the original reading of uncertain passages) and may even turn up previously unknown texts, as at Oxyrhynchus.

GET THE STORY.

MORE ON ST. CATHERINE’S MONASTERY.

Evil Overlord Update

A piece back I blogged about

THE EVIL OVERLORD LIST.

In case you missed it, it’s a list of resolutions that you should keep should you ever become an evil overlord. Things like:

  1. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.
  2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
  3. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.
  4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

This weekend I was watching some sci-fi, and it bought to mind a couple of new points for the evil overlord list. I therefore propose the following resolutions:

  • My Robotic Legion of Terror (and my Synthetic Vampire Army and anything similar) will not have its command and control so centralized that by blowing up a single ship (or killing the initial vampire) one can disable the whole of the fighting force.
  • If I develop a new poison or create a tailor-made diseased designed to kill only my enemies, I will not spend lots of resources developing an antidote for it before deploying it. I will wipe my enemies out while there is still no possible cure in existence for what I plan to inflict on them.
  • I will not attempt to satisfy my honor by accepting challenges to duels or other ritualized forms of "to the death" combat with my enemies. My honor will be perfectly satisfied if I just shoot them and get it over with.

Add your own evil overlord resolutions in the combox!

My Respect For Bob Geldof Is Increasing

BobgeldofNot that I had much to begin with. To tell the truth, I don’t hold activist pop stars in especially high esteem–besides the basic dignity they need to be shown as human beings, of course.

But as I hear more about Geldof’s leadership of the upcoming Live8 event, I find myself holding him in significantly higher regard.

He may have been the frontman of the Boomtown Rats, but his behavior of late has been anything but rat-like.

Celebs doing charity work to puff their own reputations (free publicity!) are a dime a dozen, but Geldof has been going against the PC tide to try to do something special here.

Like what?

Well, how ’bout:

INVITING POPE BENEDICT TO TAKE PART.

CREDITING PRESIDENT BUSH FOR ALL THE HELP HE’S GIVEN AFRICA, AND NOW

INSISTING ON NO BUSH-BASHING, GLOBAL WARMING-RANTING, OR IRAQ WAR-POUTING ON STAGE FROM THE ARTISTS.

All these are decisions that have attracted criticism from within the pop music community.

He’s not playing the usual self-serving celeb game. He’s acting like he’s . . . y’know . . . actually trying to help the folks in Africa by making sure that th concert stays on message and has the braodest appeal possible.

If only more pop stars weren’t such tantrum-prone children.