The Badger Catholic: Issue of Baptism without Christian parents

Showing posts with label Issue of Baptism without Christian parents. Show all posts

50 years ago today, Bp. Morlino joined the Society of Jesus

In other Madison news, haters gonna hate.

As for the petitions being delivered Thursday, King called it "a non-event" and said Morlino will not be present to receive the petitions.

"We've known about their efforts for the past couple of weeks," King said. "Not one person has called our office for any clarification, which we've offered through our public statements."

Read more: http://host.madison.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/in-the-spirit-petitions-with-more-than-signatures-to-be/article_d89014d3-94b9-58b8-ad5f-82b2120357e4.html#ixzz393z511ME

Oops, you are supposed to at least keep up the guise of actually caring about what happens in the Catholic Church before pretending to care about her Baptismal policies. I don't think there's much point in wasting any more breath on it. The leaked policy is the correct policy, I assume more diocese will adopt the model. To mandate Baptism for non-Christian parents(of which committed same-sex partners would generally fall) would require a change to Canon Law. We could go into, well they are living chastely and already had adopted children prior to some level of conversion, well yes, but that is exactly why the diocese is taking the pressure of the priests to make the determination and now the "blame" when baptism is denied falls on the diocese or the bishop.

Bp. Morlino comments (only remarks to date) on baptism of children of same-sex couples in NCRegister

MADISON, Wis. — In the 21st century, the Church is encountering requests for children’s baptism from parents in same-sex relationships. But few dioceses have actual policies in the area, which requires a great deal of pastoral attention and no one-size-fits-all answers.

In the Diocese of Madison, the vicar general, Msgr. James Bartylla, sent out a May 10 email to pastors asking them to “please seek consultation and coordination” with his office on requests for baptism of children to same-sex couples. The email stated that each case “must be evaluated individually,” because of difficulties in same-sex unions that “touch upon theology, canon law, pastoral approach, liturgical adaptation and sacramental recording.”

Msgr. Bartylla’s email was originally confidential to priests. It emerged after being leaked by a third party to the Wisconsin State Journal, which erroneously reported that the diocese was centralizing those decisions and seemed to indicate it was taking the call away from pastors.

“If priests read Msgr. Bartylla’s memo carefully, what he asked them to do was to consult and to coordinate with his office,” Madison Bishop Robert Morlino told the Register. “He never mentioned that they needed his permission.”

Bishop Morlino said the diocese had been wondering over the last few years about how many times certain pastoral situations arose, such as the baptism of a child raised in a same-sex household. He wanted to know whether the local Church was consistent in its pastoral care and to “better understand what is happening among our people.”

“So to consult and coordinate with him meant that our office would be aware of what the situation was concretely and what the pastor was planning to do; and if we had any further considerations with regard to a consistency of practice, then we might offer him those suggestions,” he said.

continue at NCRegister