A Catholic priest in Phoenix has been forced to apologize after thousands of his baptisms were ruled to be invalid.
Reverend Andres Arango has served for two decades across Brazil, the Diocese of San Diego, and the Diocese of Phoenix. However, he’s since apologized, asked for forgiveness, and resigned as a parish pastor over a grammatical error in his baptisms.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted said: “It is with sincere pastoral concern that I inform the faithful that baptisms performed by Reverend Andres Arango, a priest of the Diocese of Phoenix are invalid, as he describes it as difficult to hear as it is challenging for me to announce.”
According to a doctrinal note from August 2020, as reported by the Catholic News Agency the baptism conferred with “We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, which is an invalid formula.”
Bishop Olmsted said the issue is “WE” is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and him alone who presides all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes.
The bishop explained: “I do not believe Fr. Andres had any intentions to harm the faithful or deprive them of the grace of baptism and the sacraments. On behalf of our local church, I too am sincerely sorry that this error has resulted in disruption to the sacramental lives of a number of the faithful. This is why I pledge to take every step necessary to remedy the situation for everyone impacted.”
Reverend Andres Arango said: “It saddens me to learn that I have performed invalid baptism throughout my ministry as a priest by regularly using incorrect formula. I deeply regret my error and how this has affected numerous people in your parish and elsewhere.”
“With the help of the Holy Spirit and in communion with the Diocese of Phoenix, I will dedicate my energy and full-time ministry to help remedy this and heal those affected. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience my actions have caused and
The diocese of Phoenix has already provided an explanation and contacted the parents or anyone who believes they’ve been incorrectly baptized. The Church said: “If you were baptized using the wrong words, that means your baptism is invalid, and you are not baptized. You will need to be baptized.”
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at Vatican City said, changing the words of the formula for baptism renders the sacrament invalid. The doctrinal congregation’s ruling was published on August 6, as a brief response to questions regarding the validity of baptisms using that modified formula.
The Vatican also specifies that a baptism administered with the formula “We baptize you” instead of “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is not valid because it is the person of Christ through the minister who is acting, not the assembly.
It said that the temptation to modify the sacramental formula “implies a lack of an understanding of the very nature of the ecclesial ministry that is always at the service of God and his people and not the exercise of a power that goes so far as to manipulate what has been entrusted to the church in an act that pertains to the tradition”.point 425 | 1
The doctrinal statement was signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, congregation prefect, and Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, congregation secretary. The congregation said Pope Francis “approved these responses” on June 8 and ordered their publication.