Sixty years have passed since Vatican II. Sixty-one years have passed since Lumen gentium, which reminded us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life around which all the sacraments revolve (no. 11). Sixty-two years have passed since Sacrosanctum Concilium taught that “the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord’s Supper” (no. 10). Given the renewal of sacramental theology and liturgical praxis called forth by the Council, with special emphasis on the sacraments of initiation, it seems strange to be asking: Why do we still baptize outside of Mass?

Take a look at the average parish bulletin, where baptisms are often sequestered into some Sunday afternoon. My parish announces them “every Sunday,” though that usually means after, not during Mass. A coherent sacramental theology recognizes the indissoluble nexus between Baptism and the Eucharist. Baptism is supposed to open the door to all the sacraments, whose “fount and apex” (LG, 11) is the Eucharist. Baptism as first sacrament of initiation culminates in the Eucharist. And because the sacraments are not free floating but part of the Church, Baptism also incorporates the person baptized into the Church. That is what the sacramental theology teaches. It’s what presumably the average priest theoretically understands. So, what is our actual practice telling the People of God, the families bringing someone to baptize?

It’s certainly not preaching that sacramental theology, at least on anything but a notional or abstract ground. It’s telling them that this is a private ceremony, mostly confined to the family and friends that came after 12:00 Mass for the baptism. It’s probably telling them that this is a ritual fit into the Sunday schedule. It’s not telling them that this person is now part of the Church, part of this parish, part of this faith community whose most important act is gathering on Sundays around this altar. (At least we’ve moved the baptismal font in most churches from the narthex closer to the sanctuary.)

But let’s prescind from the theology. A recent survey on X asked respondents what issues they would like Catholic writers to address. A considerable number answered, “How can I feel part of my parish?” Despite signage proclaiming the “Community of St. Y,” and maybe even copies of mission statements posted somewhere in the narthex (maybe where the baptistry used to be), the average parish still has to grapple with the reality — especially as episcopal closures inflate their size — that they are less a “community” than the local franchise of the diocesan “church” providing fill-up spiritual service. When we relegate our newest members and their families to a ritual outside of the main gathering of the “community,” don’t we reinforce that deficient image of parish?

Social scientists warn of the dangers of imploding fertility. Young people aren’t getting married, they putting off parenthood, and they aren’t having babies. If we as a Church think those trends are all bad, then why aren’t babies more visible? Why are we not celebrating marriage and its crowning fruit of parenthood in Mass with the rest of the community? And wouldn’t celebrating Baptism in facie Ecclesiae, at Mass, also reinforce the young parents’ bond to Sunday Mass? After all, celebrating Baptism at Mass also reinforces the whole baptismal parties’ relation to the Eucharist.

Is it a question of scheduling and logistics? Have we worked out the time spread between Masses (including parking lot egress) so finely that throwing in baptism(s) would throw a monkey wrench into our finely tuned machines? One hopes that such crass utilitarian considerations are not the excuse for short-circuiting good theology. But just in case they are, here are some suggestions: Schedule baptisms for the last Mass of the morning, where there’s not an immediate follow-on. If that doesn’t work, then – gasp! – recite rather than sing the Gloria and tell the organist to cut her post-Communion solo. Baptism really is more important.

In most parishes, nothing is more the victim of hoary inertia than the schedule: Once established, it often runs on auto-pilot for decades. It’s the most likely reason why, more than six decades after the liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council calling for focus on the centrality of Christian Initiation, Baptism in the average parish remains divorced from the Sunday Mass and relegated to some occasional service.