300 Baptisms per Week- Hispanic Confusion over the Sacrament

I was driving back from Panda Express where I got my dinner version of fast food nourishment for the day.
I turned on the radio to 90.1FM KERA (Public Radio) and I heard the beginning of "Latino USA" an hour-long program.

I was taken by the segment on the "drive by baptisms". There is this church in California where 300 people are baptised per weekend. PER WEEKEND!!!!

(and we think that immigration is a problem here in Texas.....) but I digress.

I had to hear the whole program, so I went inside and downloaded the MP3 of the segment from the Latino USA website. (link to hear it yourself is at the bottom of this blog)

What was amazing to me was how ignorant these Hispanic immigrants were. They knew SO LITTLE about the Faith and what baptism meant.

There is one fellow they interviewed who said, (paraphrase) "I was baptised in the Catholic Church when I was a baby, but then I was baptised a Christian later."

Here he was, thinking that he wasn't a Christian, when all along he was a member of the FIRST Christian Church.... the "OC"- the Original Christians-- Catholic!! Is there any wonder that there is such entropy happening to the Catholic Faith in Latin American countries?
And what's more, he thought he had to be re-baptised as though being baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit didn't "take" the first time around. Misguided.... and ignorant.

But somehow, they know it is important to be baptised.... otherwise they wouldn't be there. But then in the recording you hear the priest chastising them for never coming to church. Indeed, if that many people who were there just to be baptised were coming every Sunday, there wouldn't be room to house them all.
I guess the real question is WHY do they think it is important to be baptised --- it may not be for the same reasons that the Church wants them to be After all, they got the other parts wrong. What else is wrong??
Click here to hear it for yourself: Latino USA 4-1-07 KERA 90.1 FM North Texas


***sigh***