Children to be received into Catholic faith

margaretclare

bonty44 wrote: »

Right, I'm going to sound really thick now, but I thought Orthodox was to do with the Greek religion; is that a branch of catholicism??

Details of the English Orthodox Church: http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/trust.htm

anguk

shelley_crow wrote: »

what do your children think?

Speaking as someone who was born CoE and mother decided to convert me to Roman Catholicism when I was six, all i felt was being powerless. I didn't have a choice and I think that's what's made me turn against religion altogether. If i had been given the choice, I would have remained as I was instead of having to go through a baptism, first communion and confirmation that I didn't want, along with being made to attend church weekly.

They may be young but it would be worth finding out how they feel about it.

That's a very good point. I was quite young when I had my son and had him Christened CofE mainly because it was the "done thing", you have a child then get them Christened. However when I had my daughter I was older and decided not to have her Christened, instead leaving the decision to her when she gets older. I've raised her as a Christian but not tied to any particular Church, she's 15 now and still feels no need to be Baptised although that may change later.

I always find it odd that some people get married in Church, have their children Christened in Church and have their funeral in Church yet never actually attend Church services or follow any faith?

bonty44

You have all been so helpful.
I shall thank you when my thanks button is working.

I am going to order that book off Amazon.

I am going to make sure my dinner isn't burning then will come back as and when I have some more questions.

Basically, can the 'receiving' be done in a normal Mass? Can it be done quite quickly? Or do the children have to do a course?

shelley_crow

anguk wrote: »

That's a very good point. I was quite young when I had my son and had him Christened CofE mainly because it was the "done thing", you have a child then get them Christened. However when I had my daughter I was older and decided not to have her Christened, instead leaving the decision to her when she gets older. I've raised her as a Christian but not tied to any particular Church, she's 15 now and still feels no need to be Baptised although that may change later.

I always find it odd that some people get married in Church, have their children Christened in Church and have their funeral in Church yet never actually attend Church services or follow any faith?

Completely agree with you on that one. If/when my partner and I get married, it will be a civil service, no religion involved. I have a friend who wanted a church wedding so that her photos had a nice backdrop, she attended for a period before the wedding and hasn't given attending a second thought since. I've made provisions in my Will for a non-religious funeral and that if i am in a coma beforehand that I do not want last rites.

My son is unbaptised/unchristened and will remain that way until he decides that he wants to be (if he does) in any faith.

shelley_crow

bonty44 wrote: »

You have all been so helpful.
I shall thank you when my thanks button is working.

I am going to order that book off Amazon.

I am going to make sure my dinner isn't burning then will come back as and when I have some more questions.

Basically, can the 'receiving' be done in a normal Mass? Can it be done quite quickly? Or do the children have to do a course?

Bear in mind that I would have been baptised as an older child I was baptised after a normal sunday mass with other younger babies, first communion happened after a normal mass too.

For both there is an intensive course (done in schooltime and/or own time) completed with a teacher covering basic theory and linking background information to the event.

This was twenty years ago so things may have changed.

money_maker_3

Don't know what bearing this has as your kids are older, but I am presbyterian and my OH is catholic so our DD was christened in my church as she will attend sunday school there and was blessed in the chapel at a private ceremony so that she can make the decision at a later date.
She is not officially a member of the catholic church until she takes first communion, confession and something else, but the door is open for her.

sismith42

bonty44 wrote: »

Ooops, I think this crossed posts.
What would my children have to confess about? This is the bit I have trouble understanding; they are only 5 and 7, I should hope that they wouldn't need to confess anything at all at at that age!!!

Bad language, not honoring their father and mother (do they ever mouth off to you...? Ignore what you ask them to do? ), that sort of thing. Not exactly major sins, but still things that could be confessed! (I'm still sorta Catholic and that's the sort of thing I confessed in primary school...)

With the baptism thing: my dad was baptised Lutheren (sp?) and converted to Catholic when I was in primary school. Just recently he told me that he had an easier time of it because he'd already been baptised so he didn't need to go through that as well as the rest of the conversion stuff... so I think the Catholic church will accept any old baptism (or that could have just been my parent's priest being nice!) Not sure about the "reccieved into the church" thing, though, sorry.

Don't worry about the priest thinking you're sounding thick-- they are almost always very nice!

Steph

Savvy_Sue

One thing that has occurred to me is that over time, you and your children will notice differences in the way things are done in different churches. Actually this isn't just a different denomination thing, it can vary from one parish to another, so personally I think the response of "Yes, that's different here, isn't it" is fine to begin with, and leave exploring the theological reasoning until later.

I'm someone who's moved from the CofE to the free church, but with a good background knowledge of most major church traditions, so when DS1 went to a Catholic school I was able to warn him about what would be 'different' when the school took them all to mass. If he'd ever been interested I could explain WHY they did things differently.

When they learned about baptism in RE his teacher was quite interested that I sent in his Certificate of Naming and Blessing (which is what we do instead of infant baptism) and an explanation of why he hadn't been 'done'. I'm not sure she'd ever come across anything different, which I found slightly alarming ...

honey06

to try and put it simply, a person is brought fully into the Catholic church through receiving the 3 sacraments of initiation- baptism, confirmation and holy communion (the Eucharist) but there are different ways for that process to happen.

when someone is baptized in the Catholic church, they become Catholic at that moment, and Confirmation & holy communion just deepen and confirm the process. its the same for babies who receive these 2 sacraments later as children (around 7) and adults who may receive all 3 at pretty much the same time.

those who have been validly baptized outside the Catholic church become Catholic by making a Profession of the Catholic faith and being formally received into the church (usually followed v quickly by confirmation & communion) and there is some preparation involved in this process. For anyone over the age of reason (7) this follows certain rules.

this is the process your children will go through to be received into the church and your parish priest will guide you on this, and will give them and you an understanding of what it means to be catholic.

One thing you will discover is that all Catholics have a sunday obligation- it means you are obliged to attend Mass every Sunday & holy day of obligation (though confusingly these days, this begins Saturday evening, so there is usually a mass on saturday evening which covers your sunday obligation) so your children will still have to attend Mass even if they attend a service at CofE church with you.

HTH

honey06

http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/f/FAQ_Sacraments.htm

this is fairly informative and explains lots of basics for you.