Sacrament of Baptism 

Dear Parents,

     We are sending this letter to help you facilitate the process of bringing your child into the church through the sacrament of Baptism. The first step in the process is a meeting with the priest or deacon in charge of the baptism ministry. With the telephone call you made you were given an appointment to meet with the priest or deacon to discuss the Baptism of your child. It is important that both mother and father attend this meeting. During the meeting, the priest or deacon will talk with you about the importance of baptism for your child and it importance in your lives as well.

     Enclosed you will find a form, Appendix I, to get all the necessary information about the child and the family. Please print the information on the form. This information will help us to create the Baptism Certificate and make the necessary entry in to the Baptism Journal. It will also help facilitate our discussion when we meet. Please bring this information with you to the interview or mail it in to us prior to the interview. Our address is: St. Clement of Rome Church, 4317 Richland Avenue, Metairie, Louisiana, 70002.

     To avoid misunderstanding about some of the rules that we are under prior to administering the sacrament of Baptism, I have included the very important ones in this letter-see Appendix II. Please take a little time to read them over and be familiar with them.

     I am also enclosing the dates for the remaining baptisms-see Appendix III-to help you plan your visit to the city and assist you in selecting your godparents. We do have a limit to the number of babies we baptize each month. If you are out of town, please select the date and inform the secretary at St. Clement of Rome Parish.

     To help with our discussion, the following list of questions is for you and your spouse to reflect on. One or all will come up in our discussion depending on the direction of our meeting. These are important and are meant to provoke meaningful dialogue about the importance of the sacramental process. We at St. Clement of Rome feel that the sacrament of Baptism is not only the initiation of your child into the Church but also an important opportunity for you to reassess your faith and commit to the Catholic upbringing of your child.

1. Why is it important to you for your child to be baptized Catholic?
2. What commitments are you willing to make at this time?
   1. Mass Attendance
   2. Prayer life
   3. Faithfulness to Catholic doctrine
3. Do you feel your faith life is a good example for your child?
4. Do you have any questions about the sacrament of Baptism or any other aspects of Catholic teaching?

     Finally, the question most often asked is about the amount of the donation for Baptism. We have set the donation at $25.00 and we request that the donation be made at the time of the interview or at the seminar. We prefer a check made out to St. Clement of Rome.

                                                                            Yours in Christ,