I have a question about baptism certificate and marriage. I was born in Mexico and Move to the U.S. since 1981. My fiance is catholic and I am catholic but I can not find my baptism cetificate. My priest told me I can get marry with out it. Is there anything I can do? Please help

-- Virginian Estrada (virginiaestrada@hotmail.com), May 04, 2004

Answers

Tienes que llamar a la paroquia donde te bautizaron. Te mandan el certificado por el correo. Si no recuerdas la paroquia, es posible llamar el arquidioceses y ellos peuden llamar a todos las paroquias del region. Usualmente, eso es lo que hacen. Tambien, sus padrinos son testigos. Ellos puedan firmar algo y el cura tiene que acceptarlo.

-- EC (EC@hotmail.com), May 04, 2004.

Dear Virginia,

When the baptism certificate is not readily available and cannot be obtained, the Church will usually accept the sworn statement of witnesses to the baptism (one reason why we have official witnesses at baptisms). Either one of your parents or one of your godparents who were physically present at your baptism can provide such a statement.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), May 04, 2004.

Yeah, that's what EC wrote....

-- gloria (gloriacman@yahoo.com), May 04, 2004.

Virginia,

Contact the parish church in which you were baptised. They should have baptismal records there, and be able to furnish you with a new copy of your Baptismal Certificate. If the church in which you were baptised is no longer operational then you ought to contact the local curial office for that parish (the bishop's office). Someone there (probably the archivist) should be able to advise you about what happened to the parish records. It's possible that they were sent to the offices for archiving, or they may have been moved to a local parish.

This is a very common problem as people move around the country or indeed to different countries, so they will have dealt with it many times before. Your own diocesan office should be able to give you the contact phone number for the Diocesan office in Mexico.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Good luck with your search!

God bless

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), May 05, 2004.

Hello Virginian,

Your original baptismal certificate should be on file in the parish where you were baptized. If you contact them, they can send you an official copy of it. Even though you may not specifically need it to get married, it would still be good for your current parish to have a copy of it.

Furthermore, if a parish has been closed, their baptismal records will be stored in another parish. The diocesan chancery where the closed parish was located will have the information of who to contact for baptismal records.

Sending out copies of baptismal certificates to people who move or lose them is a common event for most parish secretaries. At least that is my experience in the U.S., so hopefully it is the same in Mexico.

Congratulations on your engagement.

God bless,

-- Deacon Eric (erfilmer@hotmail.com), May 05, 2004.