Posted on 11/29/2024 10:38:05 AM PST by ebb tide
Writing to a grandmother distressed about her children’s lack of attention to religion for their own children, Pope Francis told her to “accompany” them but not to insist they baptize their children.
In the inaugural edition of a new Vatican magazine, Pope Francis downplayed an Italian grandmother’s concerns about her grandchildren not receiving the Sacrament of Baptism. The Pope’s reply came in direct response to a letter from a woman named “Oliva” and will form a regular feature in the magazine.
Oliva recounted how the youngest of her three grandchildren was “not baptized, because her parents, who were married civilly, drifted away from the Lord during their teenage years.”
The young girl, now aged five, appears to have remained away from the Church with Oliva recounting that the girl’s parents have “no desire” to “seek Him [God] and make Him present in their lives.”
Such a scenario, Oliva wrote, “is a source of great suffering for me because I know how important it is to have the Lord by our side, to pray to Him, to listen to Him and to receive His love.”
“I imagine my granddaughter without this great gift, without the Sacrament of Baptism, she is so curious about the story of Jesus with so many questions of her own. What will Jesus think of all this?” she asked.
The grandmother wrote that she continued her prayers for the young girl’s parents to return to the practice of the faith and placed her problem before the Pope, seeking his “comfort and advice, confident that the Lord will show us the right way to help our granddaughter.”
Francis empathized with Oliva, but urged her not to insist that her grand-daughter be baptized.
He first highlighted baptism as “the door that allows Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to dwell, to take up residence, in our person” and noted the importance of baptizing infants rather than waiting until later life.
Francis also noted that “Baptism still cannot be imposed on parents who do not want it for their children,” recommending instead that grandparents, “by your example, can open many hearts that seem closed.”
He urged Oliva to “carry on the dialogue always … with hope, with meekness and with charity.”
But he specifically also recommended that she did not insist upon the grandchild’s baptism: “Accompany your children, talk to them, but without insisting with the proposal of Baptism. Free love is more persuasive than many words.”
The Pontiff cited the example of St. Monica and her “unceasing prayers” for the conversion of her son, St. Augustine.
St. Monica famously prayed for many years for Augustine to return to the practice of his Catholic faith, following him from country to country in order to be near him and attempt to lead him away from his notably non-Catholic lifestyle. After initially intending to cease contact with him due to his abandoning of the faith, St. Monica was given a vision in which she received reassurance that he would return to the faith, which he eventually did many years later.
The Catholic Church teaches that baptism “is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit,” and the sacrament which makes one a member of the Church. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1213)
It is a matter of faith, a teaching held de fide, that baptism is necessary for one’s salvation.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent urges the utmost importance of baptizing children as soon as possible, in the section entitled “Baptism Of Infants Should Not Be Delayed”:
The faithful are earnestly to be exhorted to take care that their children be brought to the church, as soon as it can be done with safety, to receive solemn Baptism. Since infant children have no other means of salvation except Baptism, we may easily understand how grievously those persons sin who permit them to remain without the grace of the Sacrament longer than necessity may require, particularly at an age so tender as to be exposed to numberless dangers of death.
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The Catechism of the Council of Trent urges the utmost importance of baptizing children as soon as possible, in the section entitled “Baptism Of Infants Should Not Be Delayed”:
The faithful are earnestly to be exhorted to take care that their children be brought to the church, as soon as it can be done with safety, to receive solemn Baptism. Since infant children have no other means of salvation except Baptism, we may easily understand how grievously those persons sin who permit them to remain without the grace of the Sacrament longer than necessity may require, particularly at an age so tender as to be exposed to numberless dangers of death.
Ping
If the daughter lacks faith that’s the problem. She’s an adult.
People need to STOP calling this obvious evil, “Pope”. Pope Benedict did not offer a valid resignation; Pope is not a “shared” position and as such, this evil was not validly elected. He was placed, much like so many of the world “leaders” now. Absolute Evil is currently squatting in the seat, defiling all that it touches. I’ll say it again, STOP calling this evil, “Pope”. The “But… but… but he’ IS the Pope” mentality only allows the evil to continue in the face of common sense. The answer is NO.
Do bears s*** in the woods. Answer yes
Is the pope Catholic. Answer, no. Not this one.
This pope is a South American queer communist.
His is not Catholic.
My oldest niece and first goddaughter wasn’t baptized until she was about two-and-a-half months old. My Mom was really getting on my sister about it. Mom showed a Catholic sensibility/mentality about it. Sometimes Francis just doesn’t show a Catholic sensibility/mentality about things.
back in the day, if you waited too long (according to the elder ladies in the family)to baptize the kid(s), the elder ladies would do an “emergency” baptism in the bathroom
FF
What about Pope Francis? He’s an adult, too. Is he not part of the same problem: lack of faith?
I’m responding to the headline
No parent of an adult gets to push this. Bring them into the faith when they’re growing up and you won’t have this problem
When I was an altar boy in the early ‘80s, the pastor regularly performed weekday morning clandestine baptisms for the unchristened grandchildren of parish ladies who had the tykes for babysitting duty. But, unlike Bergoglio, that old-school Irish-American pastor was actually a believing Catholic.
But no one seems willing to be bringing the poor child into the faith, not the mother and not the pope, but only the good grandmother.
What good is a pastor if he leaves his lambs to the wolves?
I will never understand the Catholic Church nor the position of an elected man as Pope, supposedly a conduit to God. Oh well, enjoy this guy’s changing rules.
Let me explain something to you
The hatred for the Pope has you talking about matters that are not relevant nor logical
Baptism brings the child into the faith. Then the person is judged as a Catholic which is worse as she will not be brought up to know the faith
The grandmother doesn’t get to whine if she was negligent in raising the mother to have faith. That’s not the popes fault.
Now. Please don’t respond to me any more
You can read the Catechism on line.
Catholicism never forces its values. It does not for me an adult to comply
That’s in keeping with God giving us free will
What about Pope Francis? He’s an adult, too. Is he not part of the same problem: lack of faith?
___________________________
It is as obvious as the nose on our face, faithlessness is what’s wrong with the world today. Satan reigns and his evil achievements are visible all around us. Until the world recognizes this truism, things will only get more extreme. Come, Lord Jesus!
You think it’s part of the pope’s job to force people into Catholicism?
Thats kind of silly don’t you think?
The grandmother is not whining, she is pleading for the Pope for help in the salvation of her grandchild.
The same Pope who will pick to the phone to assure any homo or trans who writes to him that God loves him/her/it just as he/she/it is, cannot pick up the phone to call the poor child's mother and tell her to get herself right with God and His Church? The same pope who claims God wills the diversity of religions?
It is not "hatred" to criticize a shepherd who not only fails to protect his sheep, but actually guides them towards the wolves.
The pope is not going to force the mother to baptize t
Her child.
It’s in the catechism
What high horse?
I failed with my son as none of my 3 grandchildren, ages 14, 13, 10 are baptized or in the Church. Everything else I did right, which was plenty as a single father, pales in comparison to this wrong of mine.
I pray.
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