Tondo church offers free baptism to babies with names derived from Joseph

MANILA, Philippines—Do you want your newborn baby to be baptized without having to pay any fees?

Name him Joseph or a derivative and head to the St. Joseph the Worker parish in Tondo on Thursday.

All babies and children to be christened Joseph or its variants such as Jose, Josefa, Josefina and Josephine are entitled to free baptism Thursday in observance of the saint’s feast, said Fr. Bobby Titco, parish priest of San Jose Manggagawa Parish Church in Manuguit, Tondo, through CBCP News.

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, which coincides with the country’s observance of Labor Day.

Titco said on the feast of St. Joseph, the parish will be hosting a “Kasalang Bayan” at 9:30 a.m. and the “Binyagang Bayan” at 11 a.m., in which babies named after the saint will be christened free of charge.

The parish priest also encouraged all workers to join the parish’s fiesta Masses at 6:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. and have the tools of their trade blessed.  Manila Auxiliary Bishop Bernardino Cortez will also celebrate a “Missa Solemne” at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The parish will also host a daylong “Palarong Pinoy,” in which all parishioners are encouraged to join, he told the official news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

“Children, teens, adults and even seniors are encouraged to join the games. Prizes are at stake for the winning participants,” said Titco. For those interested, they may have their names registered at the youth desk set up in front of the church, he added.

The San Jose Manggagawa Parish, which falls under the canonical jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Manila, was founded in July 1966.

It has since catered to the spiritual needs of Manuguit, Obrero and Antipolo — small communities in Tondo with a large population of laborers, which explains the choice of the name for the parish.

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark have identified St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus, as a tekton, a Greek word for “manual laborer” or “handyman” but traditionally translated into English as “carpenter.”

Jesus, following the Jewish custom of the day, became a carpenter like Joseph. Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist and philosopher who lived in the second century, wrote that Jesus made various farm instruments out of wood such as plows, yokes and other tools.