One Baptism Is All It Takes

Let's spend some time on the sacrament of Baptism, since it is foundational to the Catholic experience. Why is that you might ask. The Catholic Church has always held that the sacrament of baptism is the gateway to all of the other sacraments. We teach that it is necessary for salvation and is validly conferred only by a washing of true water with the proper form of words. It is through baptism that we are freed from sin, are reborn as children of God, and, configured to Christ by an indelible character.

Parents, sponsors (we typically call them Godparents but that is not the official name), and the priest or deacon are responsible for making sure the name chosen for the baby is not foreign to Christian sensibility.

The proper place for a baptism is a church or an oratory. An oratory is usually found at a seminary or private chapel for religious orders. For an adult to be baptized, the person must have demonstrated the intention to receive baptism, have been instructed sufficiently about the truths of the faith and Christian obligations, and have been tested in the Christian life through the catechumenate (a period of preparation for baptism and entry into the Catholic faith). The adult is also to be urged to have sorrow for personal sins.

It is important to remember that the first thing Jesus Christ did when beginning his public ministry was to be baptized by St. John the Baptist, his cousin. St. John was sent to prepare people for the coming of the Lord. Jesus certainly didn't need to be baptized, since He was born without sin, but He had to be sure to follow all that His prophets had proclaimed about the coming Messiah so that the people would recognize and understand who He was and what He had come to do.

Those baptized in a non-Catholic ecclesial (church or denomination) community must not be baptized conditionally unless, after an examination of the matter and the form of the words used in the conferral of baptism and a consideration of the intention of the baptized adult and the minister of the baptism, a serious reason exists to doubt the validity of the baptism. If in the cases mentioned above, the conferral or validity of the baptism remains doubtful, baptism is not to be conferred until after the doctrine of the sacrament of baptism is explained to the person to be baptized, if an adult, and the reasons of the doubtful validity of the baptism are explained to the person or, in the case of an infant, to the parents.

Each person to be baptized is given a sponsor who assists an adult in Christian initiation or together with the parents presents an infant for baptism. A sponsor also helps the baptized person to lead a Christian life in keeping with baptism and to fulfill faithfully the obligations inherent in it. There is to be only one male sponsor or one female sponsor or one of each. To be permitted to take on the function of sponsor a person must:

• be designated by the one to be baptized, by the parents or the person who takes their place, or in their absence by the pastor or minister and have the aptitude and intention of fulfilling this function;
• have completed the sixteenth year of age, unless the diocesan bishop has established another age, or the pastor or minister has granted an exception for a just cause;
• be a Catholic who has been confirmed and has already received the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist and who leads a life of faith in keeping with the function to be taken on;
• not be bound by any canonical penalty legitimately imposed or declared;
• not be the father or mother of the one to be baptized.

A baptized person who belongs to a non-Catholic ecclesial community is not to participate except together with a Catholic sponsor and then only as a witness of the baptism.