OUR LADY QUEEN OF HEAVEN CATHOLIC CHURCH
617 W. Claude St.
Lake Charles, LA. 70605
Dear Parents,
Please carefully read the following INFORMATION and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM, all other requested forms and documents, and return them to the church office.
Thank you for choosing life! The Lord has blessed you with the gift of a child and now you have made the important decision to have your child baptized in the Catholic Church. This is no mere social convention but carries with it the serious responsibility of raising this child in the practice of the Catholic Faith. Church Law requires that both parents and Godparents “are to be instructed properly on the meaning of this sacrament and the obligations attached to it” (Canon 851). Therefore, you and the Godparents you will chose will be required to attend a Baptism Preparation Class if you have not already done so for a previous child. Canon 867 states: “Parents are obliged to take care that infants are baptized in the first few weeks”. Therefore, we recommend that you begin your preparation before the baby is born, if at all possible.
Each of the Catholic Godparents will need to complete a separate registration form. To assist you in the important decision of choosing your child’s Godparents, please read the following instruction.
“In the baptism of children…Godparents are to be present in order to represent both the expanded spiritual family of the one to be baptized and the role of the Church as a Mother. Godparents help the parents so that children will come to profess the faith and live up to it. In the actual celebration of baptism, the part of the Godparents is to, together with the parents, profess the Church’s faith in which the children are baptized. Therefore Godparents, chosen by the families of children to be baptized, must, in the judgment of the pastor, be qualified to "carry out” the above responsibilities.
Requirements for Godparents: