First of all, especially if you have a new-born baby, Congratulations!

We are delighted to welcome babies or children for Baptism.

To begin the process it would be best to contact Father Adrian. He will give you an enrolment form to complete and discuss arrangements with you.

Before your child can be baptised the Church says there must be a ‘well founded hope that the child will be brought up in the Catholic religion’. This means that asking for Baptism is about faith and faith is about what we believe, how we live and how we worship – the faith of the parents, the faith of the godparents, and eventually the faith of the child.

Don’t worry you are not going to be told off, but you will be encouraged to come back Mass. It is necessary that at least one parent of a child presented for baptism should be a Catholic. We would normally expect this person to be prepared to come regularly to Sunday Mass with their child.

It makes no difference. Your partner will be made very welcome and encouraged to take part in the preparation and in the ceremony as much as possible.

Of course you can. The important thing is that you want to help your child to grow up in the Catholic faith.

We will be looking at baptising your child. God wants to have a close and special relationship with everyone; that is what Baptism is about, so we will be happy to welcome you.

It is a wonderful thing to bring a child to God for baptism. Do you remember the story of when parents were bringing their children to Jesus for him to bless them? The disciples turned them away and this made Jesus tell them off. He said, ‘Do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs’. Baptism is part of bringing children to Jesus. He wants your child to get to know him and be close to him. It is up to you, of course, but it is certainly very rewarding.

There must be at least one Catholic godparent to help your child grow as a member of the Church. If you also want to ask someone who is not Catholic to act as a witness to Christian faith and to help your child develop in the spiritual life that is fine. It is important to think about why we choose someone to be the godparent of a child. It needs to be more than just returning a favour or keeping family or friends happy.

As well as completing an enrolment form and speaking to Father Adrian we ask you to meet with a parishioner who will explain what Baptism is about and look at the ceremony with you. This person (we call them a catechist) will get in touch with you once you have completed the form. The catechist will either fix up a one-to-one meeting, or invite you to join a group of parents, depending on how many children are due to be baptised.

Sometimes for various reasons a person has not been baptised when they were young. It is wonderful if, in later years, that person decides they would like to become a member of the Church. We run a special period of preparation called ‘RCIA’ (Rite of the Christian Initiation of Adults) which in some parishes is known as ‘Journey in Faith’. There is a separate page on this website telling how to find out more about this.