Baptism
SACRAMENT of BAPTISM
St Patrick Parish– Church of St Rocco – Church of St Hyacinth
Dear Parents,
Congratulations on the birth of your child! The Baptism of your child is literally the most important day of his/her life. Through Baptism, you child is washed clean from original sin and becomes a son/daughter of God. Our Lord Himself says that “no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3-5).
So, I'd like to begin with a serious question: Would you wait to take you newborn to the doctor when sick, or delay giving them a critical vaccine? If the answer is, I suspect, "of course not!", then I beg you to think of baptism in the exact same light. Because we never know when we might die (and while rare, tragically infants do sometimes get ill and die), Catholics baptize infants as soon as possible, typically less than two months after birth. For this reason, we do not schedule baptisms for more than two months from the time you contact us. We simply in good conscience cannot participate in an unnecessary delay in THE most important Sacrament.
We understand the desire to celebrate this day with family and friends, but often dates are pushed off far too long to accommodate guests and the celebration. While not intentional, this places the priority on the celebration/guests over the baptism itself. Please note that Godparents may be represented by proxy at the baptism in the event they cannot attend.
For those cases when out of prudence the baptism occurs before you can assemble family/friends and plan a celebration, we are happy to schedule another event in the Church when everyone can be there. While it is not another baptism, it can be a celebration of the past baptism with prayers and thanksgiving.
Below you will find the steps for baptizing your child:
1) Complete baptism application with the parish office at St Patrick. If you would like to fill out the application yourself, click HERE. The application, and any subsequent applications can be emailed to stpatricksglencove@gmail.com.
2) Sign and return your “Parents’ Baptismal Promises” attached HERE.
3) Upon receipt, the parish secretary will add your baptism to our "to be scheduled" list.
4) A priest of the parish will contact you to schedule/finalize the date.
5) Select sponsors/godparents (optional). HERE is the form the potential godparents need to fill out and sign. Church Law requires that a candidate for Baptism should be sponsored by a baptized & confirmed member of the Catholic Church who is willing & able to help the child develop & grow in the Catholic Faith. There may be one or two sponsors. If two, one must be male & the other female. A baptized Christian Non-Catholic may not be a sponsor, but may act as a sponsor or witness. Non-baptized persons may not officially act as a sponsor or witness to a Baptism of a child in the Catholic Faith. If no sponsor is chosen, someone will be selected who meets the requirements. Please be aware that if these forms are not returned to our office in time for the baptism, the person will not be able to be listed as a sponsor. The responsibility to make sure this happens in time belongs to the parents.
6) Prepare! For all parents, especially those who are baptizing their first child, we strongly recommend you prepare by watching some videos on Formed.org. These short videos are called “Preparing for Your Child’s Baptism”. The link is below. When asked to sign up for Formed, which is free, simply select St Patrick Church in Glen Cove as the sponsoring parish.
https://app.formed.org/app/collections/1510823
6) Come for the Baptism! Please be punctual as other events may be planned for that day. Each Baptism is allotted 30 minutes. If there is a delay in starting the ceremony for whatever reason, as long as the child is there, the ceremony will be appropriately abbreviated by the celebrant. Remember, Godparents may be representd by proxy and do not need to be physically present at the ceremony.
