Coming from a Southern Baptist background, we love to dunk and redunk. So after my conversion I was a little disappointed to learn that with my conversion there wouldn't be a rebaptism for either myself or my wife (my children, however, were). It was with this revelation that I noticed a couple other odd things or interesting differences that I wanted to comment on as a new-vert.
No redo. This was an interesting little hiccup I hadn't even thought about. Because I came from Baptist background and because we had been Baptized in the Trinity we were done with that sacrament according to the Catholic Church. See in my previous faith tradition, you receive baptism as many times as you want or think you need; thus I just naturally assumed that I'd be "re" dunked as part of the conversion process. Of course after the first it is to "reaffirm" in Southern Baptist tradition and we had mentioned that Catholics do renew their Baptism - just very differently. Now this may sound bizarre to my Catholic audience but remember you're doing it every time you dip your finger in the font. It was good to learn that Catholics had a reaffirmation process too as that was something that I often looked forward to (albeit I never actually got re-Baptized). Even if most didn't know it. Thus I got burned twice -- once for previous Baptism and the second for previous marriage (annulment). That of course is an entirely different topic for another time. I applaud the Church for it's openness and acceptance of other traditions, just sometimes it's a little disappointing.
Second oddity I noticed is the idea of infant Baptism. While my wife and I both are waiting on our annulment rulings, we are planning on having our infant daughter Baptised at the same time. Apparently, it's not well looked upon to do anything other than to get a child Baptized ASAP. While nothing like my patron Saint's Baptism, there is a general distress by those we have talked to. It's certainly a different culture and I understand it. I want her Baptized as soon as possible too, however, her God Mother cannot arrive till January (she works for Amazon so you see the reason) and it looks like we are going to be waiting at least that long on our annulments as well. We aren't worried, only because we come from a different faith tradition where Baptism was part of the accepting Christ and NOT done at birth or infant. I wasn't Baptized until I was 16. Regardless, I want my daughter to receive the Holy Spirit just as quickly as possible. I know I could have used that when I was younger and I'm lucky to have made it as long as I have (Thank you Guardian Angel!).
It's just really interesting watching the reactions and whatnot with a different perspective. As a parent and having a fundamental understanding thanks to my continued studies AND RCIA I'm actually more worried about Confirmation than I am about the Baptism. Hopefully, here soon we can get everything taken care of and continue to grow as new-vert Catholics.
God Bless!
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