The Judge Report

Q. 621. What is Baptism?

A. Baptism is a Sacrament which cleanses us from original sin, makes us Christians, children of God, and heirs of heaven.

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On Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, in the Church of her ancestors, St. Mary’s of Amsterdam, wearing the same white gown worn by her mother and grandmother, Miss Laura Ann Porcello was cleansed from original sin and became a child of God and an heir of heaven.

And made her Grampa very happy.

Uncle Sy was born at home on December 4, 1922. His birth certificate says December 5th, but that’s the day they got around to registering it, I guess. Things were not quite so formal and legalistic back then.

There were ultimately 13 children born to Bronislaw and Anna Raczkowski Foltman and Sy was on the down side of the group, so potential names had already gotten scarce. So, it was potluck based on the feast day of the Saint of his baptismal day, December 31.

“So that’s how I got named Sylvester and I’ve hated it all my life,” he told me once.

Just out of curiosity, I pulled out my pre-Vatican II volume of feast days of the Church and thumbed through it.

“You know,” I said, “You should consider yourself lucky. If you’d been baptized the next day your name would be Circumcision.”