Baptism

Unless they are registered members at OLP, the Church's canon law requires parents to approach the parish they live nearest to for their child's baptism. If parents are both unregistered at OLP and living outside OLP's parish boundaries, the following requirements will need to be met:

1. The parents will need to become registered members at OLP.
2. The parents will need to provide a signed letter from the pastor of the Catholic parish they live nearest to granting permission for the baptism to take place at OLP.
3. The parents will need to regularly attend Mass at OLP for 3 months.

Baptisms at OLP are held after Mass on either the second weekend or the fourth weekend of the month. They take place privately after either the 4:30pm Saturday evening Mass or the 11:30am Sunday morning Mass.

When you fill out and return your "Baptism Registration Form" (downloadable on this page), you can indicate which date and Mass you'd prefer. If another family is scheduled to have their child baptized at that same Mass, we will baptize both children in the same ceremony.

If this is your first child for baptism, we ask that you attend one 50-minute baptism preparation class here at Our Lady of Peace. If you received baptism prep while baptizing an older child (even at another parish), you do not need to attend the class.

The next baptism prep class will be on Saturday, January 20th, 2024 at 9:30am. Please contact Anthony Rosselli ([email protected]) to learn more about the class and to book your spot.

Godparents: For Catholic baptisms, the following guidelines from the Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law apply for godparents:

• While having two godparents is traditional and more common, only one godparent is required.
• Godparents must be at least 16 years of age.
• A godparent cannot be the mother or father of the person being baptized.
  • A grandparent, however, can be a godparent.
• Godparents must be practicing Catholics.
  • They must have received the sacrament of Confirmation and they must be currently practicing the Catholic faith.
• What about non-Catholic Christians? Can they be godparents?
  • While non-Catholic Christians cannot be godparents, they can participate in the rite in a similar way as "Christian Witnesses." In this case, at least one Catholic godparent would still be needed.