The mother’s surname was used on the child’s baptismal records because his parents were not yet married during the time of the child’s baptism. The parents later married, and consequently they wanted their child to carry the father’s surname. Can they simply submit a copy of their marriage contract to request for partial change of entry?

A request of Partial Changes of Records may be submitted to the Chancery Office by the parents of the child. Basic requirements include a letter of request for Partial Change of Records from the parish priest, an affidavit executed by the petitioner sworn before the parish priest stating the correction, a certified true copy of the parent’s marriage contract, and other requirements as deemed necessary by the evaluator from the Chancery Office.

Case. We have encountered a case wherein a petitioner requested for partial change on a baptismal document, and the changes were approved by the Chancery Office. But after a year, the same petitioner returned to the parish and again requested for partial change on the same document. Is the second request for partial change acceptable?

In order to save time, effort and resources, it is very important to always advise the petitioners to closely examine their documents and make sure that all entries needing partial change are included in the request. As long as they are able to present sufficient proofs to support the change, you are advised to accept their requests, unless you detect deceipt on the part of the petitioner. It is important to always refer cases like these to your parish priest to allow him to properly discern what to do.