Q: I look forward to and enjoy your blog postings. I am a permanent deacon. During my formation we were taught that the sacrament of Infant Baptism should only be celebrated once on a Sunday except for extenuating circumstances. I believe it was a theological consideration (not Canon Law) to emphasize the communal aspect of the sacrament. That has been our practice until recently. Recently our new pastoral associate has started scheduling baptism at multiple times on a Sunday. For example 8:00 am Mass, 11 am Mass, and then at 12:30 outside of Mass. Do you know if we should be avoiding celebration at different times on the same day? If so do you know where I can find documentation to support this. I do not want to bring this up if I am off base. I have searched the new Order of Baptism for Children and can find nothing related to this. Personally I could see an argument in favor or not in favor of this practice.
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A: Thanks for your comments on my blog.
I don’t know of anything forbidding celebrating baptism more than once a day. The preference for the Easter Vigil and Sundays is in the Order of Baptism of Children 9, where it encourages celebration within Mass, “so that the whole community may be able to take part…. Nonetheless, this should not happen too often.”
The OBC doesn’t envision multiple baptisms on the same day, but it doesn’t forbid them. I’d probably let it go.