A Catholic priest in Phoenix, Arizona is now resigning after it was discovered that he has been performing Baptism rites incorrectly for at least two decades.  That means that potentially THOUSANDS of baptisms have been ruled “invalid” by the Catholic Church

Photo by Saint John's Seminary on Unsplash
Photo by Saint John's Seminary on Unsplash
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It turns out the priest, Father Andres Arango, was only off BY ONE WORD. Instead of saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”, Father Arango would say, “WE baptize you in, et cetera and so on and so forth”.

How serious is this? The Catholic Church says the years of erroneous baptisms make other holy rites such as confirmations, communions, and, most alarmingly, MARRIAGES “not recognized” by the Church. YIKES! One word wrong and now maybe you’re living in sin (or possibly going to hell)?? That sounds extreme. Here are what some of our MoSho callers had to say:

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
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Juan called to tell us that “babies aren’t condemned to hell” anymore if they’re unbaptized. THAT’S a relief, I guess.

Some callers like Ben said, “medieval relics” like this need to go into the dustbin of history.

James reminded us that, “words make a difference” and recalled that in 2009, Barack Obama had to be sworn in a second time after Supreme Court Justice John Roberts stumbled with some of the wording of the oath of office.

Louie put it all in perspective by telling us “baptism is an excuse to have a big party, get drunk and get in a fistfight with family members”.

If getting ONE WORD wrong when performing baptisms is enough for a priest to have to resign, I guess I would just say…maybe the Catholic Church need to re-evaluate their priorities.

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