Congratulations on the birth of your child!
The current policy of the Chaplain's Office is to allow baptisms in the Siena chapel. However, we strongly encourage the members of the Siena community to celebrate their child's baptism in their home parish. As the chaplain's office policy states, the parents should have "good pastoral reasons" for holding the baptism at Siena and not at their parish.
What is the rationale for this? Since baptism represents a formal initiation into the community of faith, it is most appropriately celebrated in the specific church community to which a family belongs.
Sometimes, couples want to baptize their children at Siena because they do not have a connection with a parish community. Maybe they don't really go to church or otherwise practice their faith on a regular basis. Or maybe they bounce around from one church to another, and have never registered in a specific parish. In cases like these, when we allow a baptism at Siena we may be sending the wrong message that baptism is an isolated ritual that has little or nothing to do with regular and active membership in a specific church community. I try to encourage these couples to get connected with a parish and to celebrate the baptism there. This is, after all, where the family will regularly worship (we hope!), and where the child will regularly hear the word of God and be nourished in his or her faith. Parishes also generally offer baptismal preparation sessions for parents and godparents, an important component of the process that Siena is just not able to provide.
So, I am open to celebrating a baptism at Siena, but I hope new parents will consider holding the baptism in their home parish, and asking their pastor to preside. With your pastor's approval, I am also happy to come to your parish to do the baptism.