Baptism

Infant Baptism (Children Six Years Old and Younger)

An infant Baptism class is required for Parents and Godparents before your child’s Baptism. See below section for more information, frequently asked questions and forms.

Baptism for Adults (Those Seven Years of Age or Older)

Contact RCIA director Deacon Ed Prisby at [email protected] or the Church office at 904-641-7244 for registration and further information on the RCIA process for Children and Adults.

Who Can Be A Godparent?

This is an important question, and one best answered after you attend the Baptism Seminar.

Too often it is assumed that any Catholic can be a Godparent, but that is not the case. Being a Godparent is not merely an honorary role like being a maid of honor or the best man at a wedding. A Godparent has an obligation, as Jesus taught, to teach their godchild to observe all that He commanded. To do that, it only makes sense that a Godparent be living the life of a faithful Catholic, and so the Church maintains that Godparents meet certain criteria. Briefly Godparents must be:

1. Practicing Roman Catholics: This means each Godparent must be attending Mass and partaking in the sacraments on a regular basis. Their Pastor or his designee will confirm this on the Godparent/Sponsor form. Please also note that Non-Catholics cannot be Godparents.
2. There can be no more than two Godparents: If there are two, one must be male and the other female.
3. Each Godparent must have received Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.
4. If married, each must be in a marriage that is recognized by the Catholic Church: Such a marriage would normally have been witnessed by a Roman Catholic Bishop, Priest or Deacon, and have been recorded in the Marriage Register of the parish where the marriage took place. Those married only civilly do not fulfil this requirement.
5. They must be sixteen years of age or older.
6. A Godparent cannot be the parent of the child to be baptized.
7. They must attend a Baptism seminar at Holy Spirit, or another Catholic Church within the past year. If they attended a seminar at another Church, please provide Holy Spirit with a Certificate of Attendance from that parish.

Please, don’t put the cart in front of the horse. To avoid a potentially embarrassing situation, attend the baptism seminar to understand the requirements for Godparents before asking someone to be your child’s Godparent.

If you have questions, please contact Deacon Pat Goin at [email protected].

“Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called. The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.” – CCC 1250

“Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them.” – CCC 1251

“The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole “households” received baptism, infants may also have been baptized.” – CCC 1252