Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Question mark over validity of Brisbane baptism

A former member of the "St Mary's in Exile" parish claims the Brisbane Archdiocese has told her that her daughter would need to be baptised again to receive the Church's other sacraments.

Nicky Dolton said her request for a copy of her daughter's baptism certificate from the Brisbane Archdiocese came back with the clause.

The original had been lost when the family moved houses, the ABC reported.

"It had a clause at the bottom basically stating that the baptism would need to be performed again to be valid if my daughter wanted to go on to receive confirmation or communion or be married in the Catholic Church," she said.

Brisbane Archdiocese Chancellor Father Adrian Farrelly says it is important to have a valid ceremony.

"People can have all sorts of convictions using all kinds of words but as they say if a priest officiating didn't pour the water and say the words in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit then baptism wasn't received," he said.

The Archdiocese will look at video footage from Ms Dolton's daughter's baptism and interview relatives in attendance to determine whether it was valid and the words 'in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit' were used.

With the Church deeming the need for conditional baptisms, for all those who received non-conventional ones by former St Mary's priests, cases similar to Ms Dolton's are bound to arise as those baptised seek to undergo further Catholic rituals, the ABC report added.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

SIC: CTHAU