Happy Easter...(the post on Catholic stuff!)

Happy Easter everyone!  Christ is risen, alleluia!

As we've said to some of you, we are trying our level best to make sure it is Alex's last Easter without a family.  Maybe, maybe we'll even meet him within the Easter season (for you non-Catholics following along, we celebrate Easter until Pentecost, so 50 days!).  Happy Easter, Alex....

FYI, Alex is in an area that is primarily Orthodox.  His country is part Catholic (although not Roman) and part Orthodox, with a (very) few other faiths thrown in.  Some people have asked if he has been baptized.  The short answer is, like a lot of things, we don't know.  It is possible, because people have adopted from that country and received momentos of a baptism in their file (at least I have heard of this, I don't know how common it is).  Whether that is or is not the case, we'll be having what is called a conditional baptism sometime after we get home.  Basically, it is a baptism that is understood to be effective as sacrament (visible sign of invisible grace) in case the person has not been baptized.  But Catholics don't believe in "re-baptism" or multiple baptisms, so the first valid baptism is considered the effective one, whether he was baptized in a different Christian church or not.  Usually people who enter the Catholic church do not have to get rebaptized.  We asked a canon lawyer in town about this, and he said whether we are able to get a foreign certificate of baptism (if it exists) or not, we should do the conditional baptism, because it is a document that is required for a couple of other sacraments (marriage or ordination).  Having an English one here will just be easier for him as he grows up.  Also, you don't want to chance that the momento was placed in his file by accident, or the minister baptized him in the name of the flower, leaf, and stringy cattail or something: really unlikely, but hey, weird things happen.

In any case, I hope Alex's institution observes Easter in some small way.  It would be next Sunday, the 15th.  For Catholics, that Sunday is often called Mercy Sunday.  Maybe that is the small mercy we can pray for, that Alex has a good Easter in his homeland.

Happy Easter to everyone who cares for Alex!  (Sorry about that diversion above into Catholic theology if you're not into that sort of thing--what can I say, I am a theologian!)

Peace--
Susan