Baptism

John and I went to our church this week to arrange for Rowan's baptism. We originally planned to test run a bunch of parishes in the hopes of finding the *right* one in which we would be comfortable raising our son. What *right* was, I wasn't sure. But I knew we would know it when we found it. Turns out Our Lady of the Visitation, the first church we tried, had what we were looking for and we have been attending regularly since the beginning of the year. I like the church because it is small, unassuming, has beautiful purple stained glass windows, an okay choir and the priest is interesting and on the young side. John likes it because the priest educates during his homilies and while a few very hard-core catholic things slip in from time-to-time, generally speaking the place isn't too judgmental or preachy. Or, so we thought until we sat down with the Deacon and his wife...

Let me take a step back for a second before I describe our evening at the church to the phone conversation that John had with the Deacon's Wife while trying to set up this meeting. It went something like this (or so I imagine because I was only privy to one side of the conversation of course):

John: Hello?
DW: Is this John?
John: Yes.
DW: This is Mireille, from OLV calling about baptising your son (in a French accent).
John: Oh, Hello.

[Insert plesantries, a few minutes and several theres on the DW's part and ahhhs on John's part.]

DW: Are you practicing regularly?
John: Ahh...let's go with "rarely".

[At which point, with furious look on my face I mouthed "Give me the phone!" and I slapped my hand to my forehead]

DW: Silence.
John: Actually, what do you mean "practicing"?
DW: Do you go to Church?
John: Oh, yes. We've been going for some time.

[Nice recovery. Good thing she is French and there may be a language barrier I think to myself as I am sinking further into the couch]

DW: Alright then, the process is....
JOhn: We will be gone to England for about a month and we'll call you when we get back. Thank you for calling.

I told John that I would be doing all the talking from now on when the church called. (This sounds bossy, I know. But in critical times, being bossy is perfectly acceptable.) I had neglected until recently to explain to John just how catholic my family really is and well, while I don't exactly subscribe to the same beliefs anymore, the last thing I want is to be thrown out of a church and have my son denied his baptism. My grandmother, Aunt Norean (the oh-so-loved Nun), Uncle Charles (the equally loved Monsignor) and maybe even Uncle Bishop Papin would roll over in their graves. You see where I am coming from now right? It wasn't uncommon for us to have mass said in the living room where we were gathered as a family. I thought this was what happened in everyone's family when I was growing up but as an adult, I fully understand how *that* was not normal and with that knowledge comes the extra pressure to ensure that my son doesn't get stuck in purgatory (or worse) because his mother and father were somehow deemed "bad". I, of course fully believe in a much more accepting and forgiving God than what the Catholics in my life believe in, but that's not the point.

Needless to say, I was terrified of the meeting that we set up with the Deacon and his wife once we returned from our trip. I prayed for the 30 minute video that everyone else seems to get when they register their babies for baptism, but deep down, I knew that we wouldn't be so lucky. And I was right. We started with a prayer and then we were grilled for 3 hours. We had to talk about our names, the name we chose for our son and our "roots". I thought I would distract them by talking about my family, but it didn't work. They still wanted to know about John's story. He did so well. The entire time I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for something to happen but things ended without us being thrown out on our ears. In fact, we apparently come from very holy families and we are going to "do great things for the church". It was comical. I think all of my holy family members were up there laughing themselves in to tears (a true McColgan trait) watching us wiggle. Anyway, Rowan is going to be baptized on June 28th, 2009 and it will be a wonderful day and celebration. We want him to have his "roots" in a church regardless of whether or not he chooses a different religion (or no religion at all) when he grows up.

Yes, that is a me sighing a big sigh of relief.