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From: Mona Andrée Rainville <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Peculiar customs in the baptism of twins
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:36:57 -0500
References: <49565A52.2040800@videotron.ca><8CB384D72337705-7DC-1625@WEBMAIL-DC01.sysops.aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <8CB384D72337705-7DC-1625@WEBMAIL-DC01.sysops.aol.com>


Thank you for your reply John,

That settles it, then.

There is presently, for Catholics, no religious reason to baptize one
twin before the other, and there was probably no such norm either in the
past. In the Jewish religion, the first born of the twins has always
been considered to be the eldest. The distinction is all the more
important if it is a son, because of the significant rituals that
follows the birth of the first born son in the Jewish religion. But
baptism, of course, is not a part of those rituals.

Wishing you all the best, health, peace, joy, for the New Year,

Mona


Fr John L wrote:
> Mona,
>
> There is no church norm specifying the order for baptising twins,
> triplets, etc. I've baptized many sets of twins, never triplets or
> more. I've always asked the family which one they wanted me to baptize
> first. The answer was always: Baptize the older one first. And the
> older one was the always the one who was born first, never the one who
> was born last.
>
> Fr John L
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mona Andrée Rainville <>
> To:
> Sent: Sat, 27 Dec 2008 11:39 am
> Subject: [Q-R] Peculiar customs in the baptism of twins
>
>
>
> Hi there,
>
> I hope all of you have had a restful and pleasant Christmas, and that
> you are all gathering your forces to face the coming New Year
> celebrations!
>
> I have a question for you....
>
> When twins are born, it is customary to consider the second born child
> as the "elder" and the first born child as the "younger". The logic
> behing this belief being that that the second born was conceived first.
> Sort of like a LIFO (last in, first out) accounting of things...
>
> Does this also translate in the order in which twins are baptized in the
> Catholic faith? The "younger" being baptized first, and the "elder"
> second?
>
> Cheers!
>
> Mona

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