[Magdalen] Dog blessing query

[Christopher Hart]

I knew of a situation in which a woman had essentially a late pregnancy
miscarriage, but the fetus was alive for the briefest time and the husband
who was present had the presence of mind to immediately baptize it. I
believe they already had a name picked out. They later had twins
successfully, but didn't reuse their first chosen name.

On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 2:35 PM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was a hospital chaplain for a number of years, and I never refused a
> request to baptize a stillborn or other dead baby or toddler. I always
> figured this was really for the parents, that it did no harm, and that God
> could sort it out.
>
> I once called a local Jesuit priest at the request of the family of a man
> in the ICU who was already comatose. They wanted "last rites." He asked me
> a couple of questions, then came in and spent time in with the family. I
> waited outside the room and then walked out of the unit with him. He turned
> to me and said, " I guess you know I really wasn't supposed to do that."  I
> said yes, I knew, but it was obviously the right pastoral decision for the
> family--the bedside is no place for a theological discussion/argument. We
> then talked a bit about baptizing dead babies. It was a very lovely
> conversation. I love Jesuits!
>
>
>
> > On Dec 31, 2016, at 2:10 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
>
> > IANAP but if I were I think I'd thank the dog for years of faithful
>
> > companionship,
>
> > mention the fact that we see God's faithfulness so demonstrated,
>
> > (yay creation!)
>
> > and bless the person.
>
> >
>
> > Years ago I knew a priest who was asked to baptize a stillborn baby.
>
> > To his credit, he always refused to tell anyone what he did,
>
> > whether he baptized or not.
>
> > Because either way, somebody was going to argue with him, I suppose.
>
> > -M
>
>