Russia (bbabo.net), - Grandmothers should not baptize their children if the parents are against it! - the Internet exploded with a categorical sensation when the head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, answered the question of a TV viewer on the TV program "Church and World" "Should a grandmother baptize her grandson if the father of the child is against it?". The father of the child insisted that the son would grow up and decide for himself whether to be baptized or not. Metropolitan Hilarion suggested that the caring grandmother think, consult with the priest, and understand whether the child himself has a desire to be baptized. Not taking into account the opinion of the father of the child, according to the metropolitan, is also not good. He left the question open and called for discretion and advice from the priest. The haste with which this response was wrapped up in a categorical recommendation not to baptize grandmothers' grandchildren is also puzzling. We offer opposite points of view on the situation. So, what to do here?

Opinion "for"

Dmitry Volodikhin, historian, writer, Orthodox Christian:

- I believe that if there is such an opportunity, the child must be baptized, even if one of his parents doubts the benefits of such a decision or against it. The logic that a child, having become an adult, decides for himself whether to be a Christian, a person of some other confession, or not to profess any faith at all, seems to me absolutely meaningless. In exactly the same way, in adulthood, today's child can decide whether to remain a Christian or not and what faith to profess. He can choose something again or refuse something, baptism does not interfere with this at all.

As for the opinion of his parents... You know, when in our world there is a kind of "tug-of-war" between believers and non-believers in the spiritual and intellectual sense, then we must first think not about who has what opinion, but how it will be better for the child. If a child has heavenly protection, then he will be, as they say, under the protection of forces incomparable in strength to what parents can put up in his defense. And it will certainly be better for the child.

But if you assume that Christianity is an ethical doctrine, not a faith, and God is some kind of principle, and not a person, then in this case, do as you know. If you think that the faith of Christ is the truth and the truth is Jesus Christ our Lord, then you will act accordingly. Your child to be in the Truth, which means baptize, period.

Grandmothers of the Soviet era performed a great missionary work, quietly baptizing children even with party parents. It sowed some seeds in the soul.

The Holy Spirit blows wherever it wants. If he wants, he will winnow in a communal apartment in the shower of an old grandmother, who will rise up, go and make a child a Christian. And maybe the experience and the protection that the child will receive at baptism will turn his fate 100 times in the direction of Salvation and deliverance from great troubles.

I myself was baptized as a child. But when I was growing up, we still had this Christian environment. And everyone went to church on Sundays

So our grandmothers in the 20th century were great. And the fact that the Soviet government did not agree with this makes one wonder how good the Soviet government was. Or, perhaps, the Soviet government was a rare fool in this matter?

What should modern grandmothers do if the children's fathers resist their baptism? I believe that if grandmothers have the opportunity to baptize, but they do not use it, then in they will be responsible for this not before their children, but before the Lord God. You just have to do what you have to, and come what may. Let the grandmother baptize her grandson, and as for the dialogue with the same father, then you can talk later ...

Opinion "against"

Jean-Francois Thiry, head of the cultural center "Pokrovsky Gates", Catholic:

- When my brother in Belgium decided not to baptize his children, I was very disappointed. I even thought: no, I secretly baptize them. Then I talked about it with friends, with priests. And I realized that if there is no environment around the child that can bring him up in the faith, he really should not be baptized. Because it will be an alien story to him. And I realized that for my nephews, I must become this environment. And maybe someday they will understand and then decide to be baptized on their own.

Although I have always thought that it is better to baptize a childhood. But, unfortunately, this environment has now disappeared in the West, the natural, natural environment that brings up a baptized child in the faith. She disappeared, and that is why I changed my position. If there is no such environment, and parents do not take responsibility, and the family does not have Christian friends, then maybe there really is no need to baptize a childhood.I myself was baptized as a child. But when I was growing up, we still had this Christian environment. And my parents were believers. Back then everyone went to mass on Sundays. I was an altar boy as a child. A priest came to our school, we had classes on religious topics. The environment was completely Christian, and it remained that way even after the 1968 revolution until the 1980s and 1990s - by inertia.

Could I become such a Christian environment for my nephews? It is still difficult for me to answer this question. They are still young, the oldest is 14 years old, and I now live far from them. But still in the hands of God.

In Russia, in an Orthodox environment, all my Orthodox friends, of course, baptize children in childhood. Because both parents and godfathers take responsibility for the Christian upbringing of the child. But I am also familiar with another environment where children are not baptized because the parents themselves do not believe in God. And one can only hope that in the life of such children there will be a lively encounter with Christianity and that they themselves will decide to turn to God and be baptized.

Here, of course, we are also talking about tradition, whether it be Belgium from the time of my childhood or Russia of the 20th century. Do we run the risk of giving everything to freedom to de-Christianize our country, culture, certain communities? I asked myself this question. But I believe that the tradition should be alive. For Soviet grandmothers who decided to baptize their grandchildren in the 20th century, she was very lively. And they later accompanied these children as best they could on the path of faith, often in defiance of their parents. But there may come a point when the tradition becomes dead. And then it can be extended by inertia, but what will it mean? For me, let a dead tradition die. It's a pity, of course, but ... it's not about her.

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