Baptism Viewed as a Social Celebration to Many Nominal Catholics

Catholic Baptism is not merely a celebration. For us, Catholics it is a very important sacrament. This is the first among the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Baptism is one of the two Sacraments of Initiation. Baptisms are very popular among the Catholics. One reason is because of our faith’s basic “family-centeredness” and “love of children”. However, it is a common knowledge that baptisms often tend to become merely social events. Parents will include a number of godparents, lavish celebrations and party for the invited guests. Some would even delay their child’s baptism because they don’t have money. Other Catholics even forget to have their child baptized because they do not understand the value of the sacrament.

Less interest is shown to the dimension of the sacrament itself. Most are nominal Catholics only – Catholics only in name, not in action and deed. Baptisms seems reduced to mere registration into the Church, similar to the civil registration/ birth certificate as a citizen. But what really is a Catholic Baptism?





1. Baptism is an initiation into a new life in Christ. It offers an initial grace, a new relationship with the Risen Christ in the Spirit within a Christian Community.

2. Baptisms should focus on the Baptism of adults. For only adults call full reality of the sacrament be brought out. For it is on the adult faith of the parents, the god parents and sponsor, that the responsibility falls for developing the seed of faith receive by the infants in Baptism.

3. Baptisms first effect is to unite the baptized with Christ, their risen Lord.

4. Baptism takes away all sin, both original and personal for adults, by signifying and effecting the coming of the Holy Spirit. Original sin in the context of Baptism refers not to the personal sin committed by the fist human beings described figuratively in Gen 3:1-7, but rather to the sinful condition into which all human beings as descendant of Adam and Eve are born, with the exception of Jesus and Mary Most Holy.





5. We ought t to know that the Catholic Church is not the physical building but it refers to the baptized persons forming the Christian Catholic Community. The church is the baptized people.

6. Baptism is really a PRAYER EVENT that involves a radical “turn around”, “a conversion”, a passage from one way of living to radically different way. We renew our baptismal vows yearly on Easter Sunday.

What were your misconceptions about the sacraments of Baptism?

Source: Catechism of the Filipino Catholics.

Next: What the Catholic Church is Really Teaching About the Sacramentof Baptism?