Over 12,000 people, both adults and adolescents, were baptized in France on Easter -- a record number in the country that experiences what many church leaders have called an accelerated "de-Christianization."
Requests for adult baptisms have been on the rise in France for
The baptism-in-a-day event was designed to be welcoming to families that had not had their children baptized for varying reasons. It included sacramental preparation, lunch, an invitation to become involved in parish life at the cathedral and the conferral of baptism during
Since the early Church, baptism has been essential to the life of believers. St. Paul underwent baptism despite having had a miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. Baptism means death to sin, once symbolized by immersion in a river, with its
Cardinal Dolan: How things have changed! Now, we priests are christening "babies" sometimes a year old. While I hardly propose returning to the two-to-three-week expectation -- as laudable as I consider that -- I do wonder if we are now waiting way
In the Sistine Chapel, where popes are elected, Pope Francis baptized 16 infants, who, he said, "give us the witness of how to receive the faith: with innocence and with an open heart."
Celebrating the feast of the Baptism of the Lord Jan.
Are Catholics permitted to baptize a dying individual? If so, how is that done and what is spoken over the person? Monsignor Charles Pope explains: “In danger of death, many of the rules about sacraments are relaxed while what is urgent and
A reader asks: “Would we baptize an alien if one ever came to Earth?” Monsignor Charles Pope answers that if the aliens from another world were pure angelic-like creatures, they could not be baptized. If however, aliens from another world were persons
A Catholic deacon asks: “I don’t see Jesus baptizing anyone in the Bible. If Jesus did not baptize, why is that?” Good question. As Monsignor Charles Pope writes, “Though the Scriptures above do mention baptism, they seem also to emphasize that Jesus
The Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart drew attention in November when Bishop Gebhard Fürst commissioned 26 nonordained theologians to administer the sacrament of baptism in his diocese. The action followed a similar commissioning in the German Diocese of Essen in March.
Recent headlines wrongly suggested a major shift in the Church's stance toward transgender individuals following a Vatican document co-signed by Pope Francis and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. The document, released in response to pastoral questions, clarifies the Church's position on baptisms involving