On the Way the Church Records Sacraments and Significant Life Commitments

[[Hi Sister, you wrote that a person's baptismal Church always keeps a record of professions, marriages and ordinations. I never heard that before. How does it work if I am married hundreds of miles from my original parish? Is this because they want to be sure people are free to undertake these life steps?]]

Thanks for the question. The way this works is that whenever a Catholic desires to make a life commitment the Church will need for them to demonstrate they are free to do so. One who is married is not free to be professed or consecrated, nor, of course, can they be ordained. In demonstrating their freedom a person (or their diocese or seminary) will write to the person's baptismal church. The first thing they want to know is whether or not the person is baptized and also whether they have been confirmed, and made first Eucharist. A record of these initial and initiating sacraments will be recorded in the parish's registers even if they happen many years after baptism; the parish where they occur will notify the baptizing parish.

Beyond these, a home parish will receive notices of further commitments (like marriages, divorces, decrees of nullity, professions, consecrations, and ordinations as well as dispensations of vows, laicization, etc.) and will add these to their permanent records. Wherever one is baptized will have a complete record of one's entire sacramental and "professional" history. At the same time, for instance, my own diocese, the diocese that professed and consecrated me as a Catholic hermit, will keep a file with copies of this same record -- and a number of other things as well. Something similar happens in religious communities, seminaries, and so forth, because these keep files on every person that applies, enters, is received, professed (temporary and perpetual), consecrated, and/or ordained, as well as a record of all departures (in whatever way that occurs), and deaths.

Yes, this happens to be sure a person is free to undertake the life step they propose to take, but also because these steps build on one another. One needs to be baptized and have received the other sacraments of initiation in order to move to some forms of commitment (profession, consecration, and ordination). Sometimes a person will not know if they were baptized and may want to enter RCIA. Contact with the person's home parish can clarify whether they will be baptized and receive the other sacraments of initiation, or merely Eucharist and confirmation, or none at all for instance.

The same is true when one approaches marriage. One's home parish can provide a record of reception of the Sacraments of initiation, as well as demonstrating some grounds re one's freedom to marry, etc. (A person will need to provide a death certificate if one's spouse has died; the home parish will not have this recorded nor civil divorces; they will have declarations of nullity recorded.) The Church does not repeat some sacraments so knowing one has received them is a pastoral help to the person and to pastoral staff. Likewise, the Church does not admit to profession, consecration or ordination unless the person is a mature Catholic and free to make this step. Canon law and the proper law of congregations require persons seeking to enter have been baptized for at least two years before they will even consider allowing them to enter a religious congregation, for example; they will need evidence the person is a practicing Catholic free of life commitments beyond this.

This is not mere formality, of course. The Church recognizes the place of the Sacraments in leading to growth in grace and faith. Freedom itself depends on growth in grace and the Sacraments have a place in this. Neither can we allow Sacraments to be trivialized. It is thus important to have a record of these seminal steps in a person's faith life. But yes, mature Catholic life and admission to profession, consecration and ordination require one to be 1) fully initiated into the Church's sacramental life, and 2) (also in the case of marriage) free to undertake such a commitment. The Church thus keeps a record of our Sacramental and life-commitment history.

By the way, there is a longer view which I have not really touched much on here, namely the historical import of every person in the life of the Church. Church registers help keep an historical record and sense of the life of the Church for those looking at Sacramental records, etc with an eye towards the place of the Church in the life of a community, a country, or the world itself, etc. The illustrations accompanying this piece help to remind us of this.