FAQ - Baptism
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Why Do Catholics Baptize Infants and Children?
Catholics and many mainline Protestant churches baptize infants and children for the same basic reason that parents give their children a surname. Baptism imparts a spiritual identity and provides a faith community for the child. Through the Sacrament of Baptism the faith community claims, embraces, nourishes and protects them.
In the early Christian communities, the baptism of adults was preceded by an often lengthy period of preparation and conversion in which the community replicated as best it could the experience of coming to know and follow Jesus Christ as the first disciples did. Baptism, adapted from a Jewish ritual of bathing and anointing, followed as a validation or confirmation of the conversion which adults experienced during this preparation time. This process of conversion, followed by baptism, was the norm until the Christian faith became legal and began expanding into the Roman empire, converting large numbers of people, and making lengthy preparation for baptism impractical or unfeasible.
Early on, however, the community made exceptions to the norm for infants and children. In this case, the baptism ritual preceded the child’s actual conversion experience which could take place only gradually as the child matured; it assumed that the child’s conversion would occur and required both the family and the faith community to insure that it would.
Today the church baptizes infants and children, but only with the assurance that the child will be raised in a Christian environment where he or she experiences the presence of the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, and grows over time to understand what it means to be a disciple of Christ, practicing their faith in a particular Christian tradition. In both the family and the church the child experiences the grace of baptism which negates what the church calls original sin, the inability or unwillingness, common to human nature, to embrace one’s status as a beloved child of God.
In a society which exaggerates individual freedom and autonomy, some parents are reluctant to choose a religious affiliation for their young children. However, it would seem odd to us if parents were reluctant to claim their child as a family member until he or she were old enough to decide for themselves if they want to belong to the family; such a choice would in effect leave the child an orphan. In a similar way, in the absence of baptism, an infants and children live as spiritual orphans.
• If you have questions about baptizing an infant or young child, or concerns about your ability to provide an environment in which your child will experience the grace of the sacrament you should visit with your pastor or a member of the parish staff or faith formation team.
More FAQs
How do I have my child baptized?
Related Links
Baptizing Infants and Children
Baptism Preparation Overview
How Parents Nurture Faith
Learn More
Infant Baptism--A Gift to the Parish
Why Does the Church Baptize Infants?
Why Does the Catholic Church Baptize Babies?
Last Update 12.23.24 -
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