I HAD MY CONFIRMATION TODAY!

Another requirement in Catholic Philipine weddings is the presentation of a Catholic Confirmation Certificate with the annotation "for marriage purposes". Another surprise came my way a week ago when I contacted the parish of Santissma Trinidad in Estrada, Sampaloc Manila. I was told that the year when I underwent the Sacrament of Confirmation was during the time when the church was not yet under the Catholic faith but was run by another sect, the Aglipayan Church. So, I needed to be scheduled for another confirmation or what we call here as "kumpil", which will be recognized as a Catholic rite. Since the only available church which holds weekly (every Sunday) confirmation rites was Quiapo Church, I was thus registered there.  Only bishops can perform the sacrament of confirmation and not an ordinary priest. The fee for registration was Php 350.00. I made sure the registration had correct entries especially my name so as to avoid a similar problem.

Today,  I had my confirmation. I needed one sponsor. There was a seminar on the Sacraments and a bit of overview about the stages of married life before the confirmation rites. It was held from 8am-12noon. After which I, my sponsor and his wife had a sumptuous lunch at New Toho Restaurant in Chinatown, Manila. I'm glad that after a week I'll be able to claim it. My mom volunteered to help claim it and I gave her the transportation and food allowance. I'm so happy, finally, I can start with my other wedding requirements. Thank God!

Quiapo Church, Manila

CAUSE OF STRESS: BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE ERROR

My first stressful experience in preparing for our wedding came when I discovered there was an error in the logbook record of The National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish regarding the correct spelling of my name.  What happened was that my although my original baptismal certificate was correct, I was told to re-construct and provide additional evidence as to the spelling of my name. At first, I was fuming mad since it was not my fault that the secretary of the parish made an error in their logbook since what I have and what was given to my mom as my baptismal certificate when I got baptized was the correct one. However, the requirements is a baptismal certificaete with the annotation "For Marriage Purposes only" and this is valid for six months only. Given no choice, I talked to the parish priest after attending the mass, but he still told me that I would need to reconstruct their record before they could release an annotated and corrected one. Whew!! What  a hassle! Anyway, I have no choice but to comply, even it was against my will, I had to secure an NSO certified birth certificate, a copy of my parent's marriage certificate, an affidavit to correct the error . These requirements needed to be submitted to the Arzobispo office in Intramuros Manila who acted speedily. You can just wait for their endorsement to the parish to correct the error in your baptismal certificate.   In fairness to the Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, once the requirements were met, the processing was speedy. It took 3 days. Personally, I just hope the ruling on this kind of mistake will be revised in favor of the soon to wed party  especially if the error was done by the parish and not by the parents of the baptized individual to avoid the hassle involved in correcting the baptismal certificate.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Makati City

Catholic weddings in the Philippines require the submission of Baptismal Certificate and Confirmation Certificate with the annotation "for marriage" . Baptismal Certificate costs Php 20.00-50.00. Confirmation Certificate costs around Php 50.00