A Latin American priest lives an ordeal in Arizona trying to locate and rebaptize “thousands” of faithful to whom he imparted the sacrament in an erroneous way by using “we” instead of “I”” (referring to Christ) during ceremonies, which have been invalidated by the Catholic Church.
Taking into account that the Second Vatican Council declares that “when someone baptizes, it is Christ who baptizes”, the wrong use of the pronoun not only annuls the baptisms but also forces them to be repeated correctly.
This error has not only the priest Andrés Arango in limbo but also the families of the baptized, who now fear that their marriages and other sacraments will also be invalidated.
For nearly 25 years, the priest, who served in Brazil, and later in the United States, in parishes in California and Arizona, performed baptisms using the “wrong” word.
At the time of performing the sacrament, the Catholic priest used the word “We baptize you” instead of “I baptize you”.
The problem with using “we” is that it is not a community that grants the sacrament of baptism to a person, but it is Christ and only he who presides over all the sacraments, that is why it is Christ Jesus who baptizes, Bishop Thomas explained to Efe J. Olmsted, of the Diocese of Phoenix (Arizona).
The prelate emphasized that in no way did the priest Arango act in bad faith and that he is terribly mortified by this whole situation.
All the chaos began after the Vatican’s Congregation for Faith ruled last year that baptisms carried out using “we” are invalid.
In Arango’s case, all the baptisms he performed from 1998 until June 17, 2021, the latter in the Church of San Gregorio, in Phoenix, They are invalid before the Catholic Church.
The Diocese of Phoenix does not know exactly how many baptisms have been invalidated, but estimates it to be “thousands.”
valid marriage
This news fell like a “bucket of cold water” for many of the affected families in Arizona, many of them of Hispanic origin, such as that of María de la Cruz Huerta, whose daughter was baptized by Arango.
“I can’t believe that a single word can remove a sacrament, It cannot be that a ceremony is invalidated in this way,” said the parishioner, who belongs to a family with entire generations of Catholics.
He indicated that he had never heard anything similar and what worries him most is that this may affect other sacraments.
The The Diocese of Phoenix has established a website to answer these types of questions.although it is not very clear how this problem would affect other sacraments such as marriage.
Which What they have told their parishioners is that they should not receive the Eucharist if they have not been baptized “correctly.”
“It’s incredible, can you imagine, perhaps many people have already left the state, returned to Mexico or are in other cities and don’t know that their baptism is invalid,” said the Hispanic.
The Diocese of Phoenix is asking all affected parishioners to contact them for assistance in coordinating a new baptism.
For its part, the Diocese of Phoenix told Efe that the priest Arango resigned his position as parish priest of the church of San Gregorio earlier this month.
The priest was not disqualified from his vocation and ministry and is now dedicated full time to contacting affected families and trying to help all those who were misbaptized.
“I am saddened to learn that I have performed invalid baptisms throughout my ministry as a priest regularly using the wrong formula,” Arango expresses in a letter published on the website of the Diocese of Phoenix.
“I deeply regret my mistake and how this has affected numerous people,” he stresses.
For now, the diocese has already begun to carry out new baptisms to try to remedy the error.
Meanwhile, the parishioners have requested through an internet petition the reincorporation of Arango, to whom they consider a “transforming” priest who was forced to resign.
“Catholics are taught that God forgives, loves and shows compassion to all. It is important that the Diocese of Phoenix also emphasize these virtues and demonstrate to its followers what it means to be Catholic,” the petition states. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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