Research Question: "Christening / Baptism / Catholic / Eastern Orthodox"

Google: baptism eastern orthodox or baptism catholic

In the Western Rite (Catholicism..and some Episcopal Churches)

Baptism is just baptism,

whereas in the Eastern Rite, Baptism also encompasses what Catholics consider the sacrament of Confirmation.

I'm Catholic (ok..wiccan-catholic) and my ex is Russian Orthodox (agnostic) our kids were baptized Orthodox, but raised Catholic...which led to a lot of interesting discussions in CCD class....

but the long and the short of it is that since the churches recognize each other...my kids took 1st communion but didn't have to be 'Confirmed' because they were already Confirmed at Baptism .

Yeah. It is confusing. Since Sister Carol isn't here to help me, Look it up.

OH...BETTER YET...PM Sherry TEX!!! (Check the weekend progress report in Humor, she posts there a couple times a week, and has sold articles to Catholic Standard(?)(Times?)

Find churches of your choice locally and ask when a particular ceremony is taking place and if you might be allowed to watch. Explain you're a writer and you want to get things right in your book. You can say it's a thriller. Mention the horror genre, though, and you'll get The Look. (You know the kind or you will.) The Look and less cooperation.

These are family things, like a wedding, so it might be difficult, but you will eventually turn up a yes. There will be someone who won't mind a quiet, nicely dressed stranger standing in the back watching. (That sounds creepy, doesn't it?)

Disguise yourself as a mundane for a couple hours so you get your reseach right.

Afterwards you can ask the meaning of this or that, though there's usually an explanation that goes with the service.

Most pastors, priests, etc. don't mind an extra head in the church. That's their job: to welcome in people.

And trust me, you won't pick up cooties from the uber-zealots. Just be friendly!

...you won't pick up cooties from the uber-zealots.

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I don't know about that. They're sneaky buggers.

I'd also vote for sitting in. Get the smell of the place, the sounds in the background, soak it all in.

There's an Orthodox internet radio show that deals with all things liturgical/theological for the layperson and the non-Orthodox available here http://ourlifeinchrist.com/ . The audio archives may be of some help. I also know that they respond to email queries.

I don't know much about baptism, because I left the faith as soon as I was old enough to think for myself. But there is an interesting thing I've discovered during my reading. I've heard (though I haven't researched the matter for myself) that once you're baptized into the Catholic church, the only way to get them to stop counting you among their numbers is to officially get excommunicated--I'm presently looking into how that's done, being such an evil sinner and all.

Not sure if that's of any use to you whatever, but I thought it was an interesting fact.

RobertlewisIR said:

I don't know much about baptism, because I left the faith as soon as I was old enough to think for myself. But there is an interesting thing I've discovered during my reading. I've heard (though I haven't researched the matter for myself) that once you're baptized into the Catholic church, the only way to get them to stop counting you among their numbers is to officially get excommunicated--I'm presently looking into how that's done, being such an evil sinner and all.

Not sure if that's of any use to you whatever, but I thought it was an interesting fact.

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Actually, when someone is baptized in (note: not into) the Catholic Church, they are baptized Christians. Whether a person chooses to remain a member of the Catholic Church is his or her decision, not the Church's. BTW, it's commonly acknowledged (even among Catholics ) that all people are sinners.

That's all well and good for Christians, and the article I read may be wrong, but I've heard that when one is baptized, the Church continues counting that individual in their population counts for life, unless he is excommunicated. Whether they're counting him as a Catholic or just as a Christian matters little to one who doesn't share in those beliefs and has no desire to be counted as such.

But again, I could be wrong. I freely admit I need to do more research, because I'm only repeating what I've read in one or two articles.

RobertlewisIR said:

That's all well and good for Christians, and the article I read may be wrong, but I've heard that when one is baptized, the Church continues counting that individual in their population counts for life, unless he is excommunicated. Whether they're counting him as a Catholic or just as a Christian matters little to one who doesn't share in those beliefs and has no desire to be counted as such.

But again, I could be wrong. I freely admit I need to do more research, because I'm only repeating what I've read in one or two articles.

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As a lifelong Catholic, I have never heard that all baptized individuals are counted as "Catholics" for life. In fact, my parish is currently conducting a census and it is voluntary. If people no longer wish to be counted as Catholic, they simply don't fill out the form.

The only place I have seen any references to Catholics counting every baptized soul have been on sites that are primarily anti-Catholic, the same kind of sites that belief Catholics are not "Christians". Even after centuries of debate over just what the term "Christian" indicates, there is no real agreement between various denominations and in fact, the term "Christian" simply means a believer in Christ, that he was indeed the Son of God.

I can't begin to imagine the paperwork involved in maintaining a census of "baptized Catholics" to pad the numbers rolls since in today's world many people are living far from the parish where they were once baptized and no one is maintaining millions of records to record deaths or defections from the Catholic faith.

I think it would be safe to say that there is no truth in this idea.

RobertlewisIR said:

That's all well and good for Christians, and the article I read may be wrong, but I've heard that when one is baptized, the Church continues counting that individual in their population counts for life, unless he is excommunicated. Whether they're counting him as a Catholic or just as a Christian matters little to one who doesn't share in those beliefs and has no desire to be counted as such.

But again, I could be wrong. I freely admit I need to do more research, because I'm only repeating what I've read in one or two articles.

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I suggest that you try to find out who's doing all this counting, and write them to tell them that if you are on their list, take you off.

Seriously, as johnnysannie said, if you are concerned about still being considered a Catholic, contact the church where you were baptized, and request that you be removed from their rolls, if indeed you are still on them. Every Catholic parish has to pay a certain amount to the diocese for each parishioner. Many churches are purging their rolls of people who are either parishioners in name only, or who no longer desire to be considered members of the parish.

Fair enough. I bow to your superior knowledge (but I did say I hadn't done the research yet, so I don't feel like a complete ass).

Re: the people who think Catholics aren't Christians--they're out of their minds. If one describes himself as a Christian, guess what: that's what he is. There are thousands of differing denominations of Christianity, and I'm not a fan of any of them, but I'm more than happy to take the side of the Catholics in this debate, because they share all of the same core beliefs as any of the others.