We wonder sometimes at the diabolical behavior of baptized Catholics. I was an eyewitness to the hate Catholics showed for their brothers and sisters in the faith in the years 1936–1939 in Spain, when 22,000 priests, nuns, and brothers were murdered by the several extreme left political parties. Virtually all those militia men were baptized Catholics. I have witnessed and shared the pain in South America of thousands of murders committed by baptized Catholics against their own sisters and brothers in the faith. And more recently, we have watched in the news the horrible genocides in Bosnia, Central America, and several African nations perpetrated by Christians.
I know that some readers may reason that there were other causes—socio-political and economic—that contributed to these horrors. I would agree with them. However, even these influences can never justify such hateful actions.
I have worked in Spain, Italy, and the Philippines; then, as a late-vocation priest, in Colombia, South America and the United States in three different parishes for twenty-four years. Now in the sunset of my life, at age 80, I feel a strong spiritual restlessness, a need to talk to my fellow Catholics about something that has troubled me through the years: the institutionalized lack of training for parents whose children are baptized into the Church.
I am neither a theologian nor a scholar; I don’t have any academic initials after my name. But I sense that we—all of us—in the Catholic Church have failed in this area to do what our blessed Lord charged the apostles to do. Pope John Paul II has repeatedly talked about the spiritual dimension of the holy sacrament of baptism. For instance, during his general audience April 15, 1998, he said:
“The one baptism therefore expresses the unity of the whole mystery of salvation. . . . In receiving the Holy Spirit, all the baptized, despite their differences of origin, nationality, culture, sex, and social status, are united in the Body of Christ.”
We have taken for granted that parents asking the sacrament of baptism for their infant children are themselves sufficiently prepared to fulfill what the priest reminds them of at the beginning of the Rite of Baptism for children: “It will be your responsibility to bring him up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor.” In Matthew 28:19–20, Jesus commands his apostles and their followers to build the Kingdom of God: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.” In order to make disciples they must learn and accept by faith what the Master teaches by word and example, and the disciples have to demonstrate by their life that they observe all the commands Jesus gave them.
Baptizing an infant, child, or grown-up in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is a call for the baptized to grow gradually, through prayer and self discipline, into a personal relationship of love with the Blessed Trinity. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him deny himself” (Luke 9:23). That’s self-discipline. A Catholic child must learn from others (and later from the Holy Spirit) how to pray. For a child or a teen-ager to understand and learn this he must experience it in the daily behavior of his parents. Baptism must not only be received but lived.
In the early Church baptism was not just an external ritual (though the ritual was and is rich in content); it was the consequence of an interior conversion, a change of behavior, a decision to accept and follow the person, message, and mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Naturally, the way baptism was performed in the early Church conveyed a visual demonstration of the power of the sacrament in the life of the catechumen. Paul gives a very graphic explanation of the meaning and dimension of this sacrament: “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we went down into the tomb with him, and joined him in death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life. If we have been united with him through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection” (Rom. 6:3–5).
This dying to sin with Christ is a lifelong experience. As the children grow up, what kind of conversation do they hear from their parents about other people? What TV shows or videos do the parents watch late at night? What magazines do they look at? How often do the parents get angry and raise their voices, or stop talking to each other? When and how do the parents pray? When and how do they worship God? How much love and forgiveness and acceptance does the child experience in his family? How spontaneous is communication and mutual acceptance among the members of the family? How do the parents try to share their material goods with those in need? Do they—the whole family—take the time to share the word of God proclaimed at the parish liturgy so that it becomes spiritual nourishment for the family?
Baptism ushers us into communion with the life of the Holy Trinity. This occurs here on earth by faith nourished by the sacraments, especially penance and the Eucharist, and in eternity by the full vision and eternal enjoyment of God. Peter writes:
“By his divine power he has given us all the things that we need for life and for true devotion, bringing us to know God himself, who has called us by his own glory and goodness. In making these gifts, he has given us the guarantee of something very great and wonderful to come; through them you will be able to share the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:3–4).
Through baptism we enter into the mystery of the Incarnation. In order to share in Christ’s divine life we must try first to be human as he was, so we can become divine as he is. Home is the school where a love for the word of God must develop. (What a blessing it would be in this regard if our Catholic people were more familiar with the writings of the Fathers of the Church.)
Home is the school of life, the school of faith. Too often parents delegate their spiritual and moral responsibility to the parochial or Sunday school. But Catholic school and CCD at any level should only support and reaffirm the faith children experience at home. We humans learn better and faster when a moral value or a faith reality is demonstrated to us in action—like forgiveness, respect for others, compassion for other people’s faults, serving those in need, et cetera. Parents must know their faith better in order to live it, thereby giving good example to their children. And we the clergy must support them in this responsibility.
I pray that the bishops work out on a national level a sound catechesis for the parents who bring their infant children to the community of faith, the parish church, to be baptized. This program should include a preparatory phase, a phase to celebrate the sacrament, and a third phase as a follow-up. The bishops should make make it mandatory as they have done with the marriage preparation.
I am aware that a few dioceses have a well-developed catechetical plan for baptismal parents, but most parishes have only a one-hour seminar to train them. Many of these parents did not themselves receive a good religious education or have a personal experience of faith. Consequently, in many homes faith cannot be passed on to the children. The community of faith—the parish—must be involved in the preparation, the celebration, and the follow-up of this catechesis for parents.
There is quite a gap between the richness of the RCIA program prior to and after baptism and the lack of catechesis of parents of babies to be baptized. They deserve better treatment. We must enable them to become the leaders of faith for their young ones. The number of babies baptized far exceeds the number of catechumens who are welcomed into the Church through the RCIA. It seems we are preparing two different kinds of Catholics. This is perhaps why cradle Catholics are typically so less knowledgeable about their faith than are converts.
The richness of the sacrament of baptism is infinitely precious. It has been purchased at a great price: the blood of the sacred humanity of Jesus, the Son of the Living God. It is a price too costly to be so easily overlooked.