17-02-2022, 01:02 PM
By PETER SMITH and NICOLE WINFIELD
yesterday
When is a baptism not a baptism?
When the cleric presiding at the ceremony alters the ritual language in such a fundamental way that it undercuts its meaning, according to the Vatican.
And even the altering of a single, crucial pronoun can render a baptism invalid, it says.
......
A Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Andres Arango, resigned Feb. 1 as pastor of his parish in Phoenix, after acknowledging he had been using the incorrect baptismal formula during more than two decades of priestly ministry in Arizona, California and Brazil.
Arango used the formula, “We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” instead of the prescribed singular pronoun: “I baptize you ...”
Theologically, that makes all the difference, the Vatican ruled in 2020, because it’s not the “we” of the congregation doing the baptizing, but rather the “I” of Jesus Christ, working through the priest.
......
In Catholic theology, baptism is considered a sacrament — a visible rite conveying spiritual grace — and is “necessary for salvation,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “The church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude” — that is, heaven.
For a sacrament to be valid, it has to be presided over correctly, the church teaches.
......
“Even if we want to make sure that everything is done as the rite needs to be done, what needs to be emphasized just as loudly is the notion that God isn’t constrained by the errors that a priest might make,” said Gregory Hillis, professor of theology at Bellarmine University, a Catholic school in Louisville, Kentucky.
......
If a person’s baptism is deemed invalid, then subsequent rites such as confirmation and, in the case of priests, ordination are also not valid as sacraments.
https://apnews.com/article/religion-ariz...5b271bd2da
https://apnews.com/article/religion-ariz...5b271bd2da
yesterday
When is a baptism not a baptism?
When the cleric presiding at the ceremony alters the ritual language in such a fundamental way that it undercuts its meaning, according to the Vatican.
And even the altering of a single, crucial pronoun can render a baptism invalid, it says.
......
A Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Andres Arango, resigned Feb. 1 as pastor of his parish in Phoenix, after acknowledging he had been using the incorrect baptismal formula during more than two decades of priestly ministry in Arizona, California and Brazil.
Arango used the formula, “We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” instead of the prescribed singular pronoun: “I baptize you ...”
Theologically, that makes all the difference, the Vatican ruled in 2020, because it’s not the “we” of the congregation doing the baptizing, but rather the “I” of Jesus Christ, working through the priest.
......
In Catholic theology, baptism is considered a sacrament — a visible rite conveying spiritual grace — and is “necessary for salvation,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “The church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude” — that is, heaven.
For a sacrament to be valid, it has to be presided over correctly, the church teaches.
......
“Even if we want to make sure that everything is done as the rite needs to be done, what needs to be emphasized just as loudly is the notion that God isn’t constrained by the errors that a priest might make,” said Gregory Hillis, professor of theology at Bellarmine University, a Catholic school in Louisville, Kentucky.
......
If a person’s baptism is deemed invalid, then subsequent rites such as confirmation and, in the case of priests, ordination are also not valid as sacraments.
https://apnews.com/article/religion-ariz...5b271bd2da
https://apnews.com/article/religion-ariz...5b271bd2da