Yup, we gave money to buy pagan babies. And somehow, one could earn the privilege of naming the baby, although I don’t remember how one earned it. I named one Ann Marie.
I think the going rate on pagan babies back then (1965-ish?) was $5.
Yah, it was like, cough it up kid. I know you have a dime in your pocket.
I was born in 1961, and I never heard the actual term “pagan babies.” But as late as 1972, we were still encouraged to donate change in our classrooms, for Propagation of the Faith. And if we donated enough money, we were told that covered a baby’s baptism.
Our reward was that we got to choose the baby’s name (it had to be a saint’s name, of course).
Wow. You just reminded me of something I haven’t thought about in 50 years. 1964, my eighth-grade class got to name a Pagan Baby! Or a formerly pagan Baby, I guess, since he/she was getting a new Catholic name. Every kid in class got to submit two names, one male and one female. Blind write-in balloting, although I’m sure the nuns could have recognized handwriting had they chosen to.
When Sister Mary Childhater read the final tally, out of our class of about 40 there were five votes for “Ringo.” Barely suppressed muffled giggling ensued amongst us urchins.
I fully expected the evil penguin to hit the ceiling, but she just snorted dismissively about the lack of respect those voters had exhibited, a most unexpected and unusual underreaction on her part. Humor wasn’t their strong suit.
I think the line for “pagan babies” was somewhere around 1965, depending on the age of the nun who you had for class.
Pre-1965 we were told we were giving money specifically to save the soul of that unfortunate little kid. Post-1965 we were donating for general missionary work, including food, medicine and education. Why TPTB didn’t think that approach was good before 1965, I have no idea.
That’s why Catholics practice** infant** baptism.
Catholic schools through grade 8 in 1973.
Definitely had pagan baby collections, but I don’t remember when they stopped. As I recall, it was $5.00 to get one baptized. Minnesota, School Sisters of Notre Dame, if that matters.
My wife (older, probably out of grade school in 1966 or so (Kansas, not sure what flavor of nuns)) also remembers pagan babies. She, however, will burn in hell. Her mom would give $5.00 to save an entire soul. But since everyone else in the class only donated a dime or a quarter at a time, that’s all she dropped in the box.
Catholic school 1976-1989, Australia.
I don’t recall anything about pagan babies but we did have small paper boxes for “Project Compassion”, which a quick search reveals is still going - run by Caritas, the catholic aid agency. IIRC it was about helping starving kids in Africa, but mostly it was a good way to get out of school 10 minutes early (we had a teacher who would give us an early-mark if we dropped $0.50 or more into the box on her desk).
Them’s the ones that got me too.
Fifty years ago the preposterous technicalities of Roman Catholicism did make it possible to game the system; I bet it hasn’t changed that much. If there’s a Catholic priest in your area your wife could always go to confession and plead guilty to a lesser charge. She did contribute at least 1% of each $5 - - that might be enough to knock the sin down to venial.
You’re welcome.