An Arizona priest is calling it quits after years of performing baptisms in an incorrect fashion that has now been determined to have rendered them all “invalid.”
Per a report fromUSA Today this week, the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has informed worshipers that Fr. Andres Arango used the phrase “We baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit” when leading baptisms. This is an incorrect approach to a process often deemed to be of the utmost importance to those who participate in such things, as the phrasing should be “I baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.”
And while the difference comes down to just one word, that’s enough to sully the officiality of it all, according to Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. “The issue with using ‘We’ is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes,” Olmsted said in a recently released statement.
In a separate statement shared to its website, a rep for the Diocese of Phoenix confirmed that “all of the baptisms” performed by Fr. Andres Arango through June of last year are “presumed invalid.” As for any baptisms performed by this particular priest after that determined cutoff date, they are said to still be valid.
“I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience my actions have caused and genuinely ask for your prayers, forgiveness, and understanding,” Arango, whose resignation from his position at St. Gregory parish in Phoenix was effective at the top of this month, said.
Both USA Today and the New York Timesreport that all of this confusion ultimately resulted in the incorrect (and thus invalidating) performance of “thousands” of baptisms across multiple decades.
As part of an effort to remedy this, the Diocese of Phoenix site is currently hosting a re-baptism form that can be filled out by anyone who was incorrectly baptized by Arango.
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