An Argentine cardinal has chided priests who refuse to baptise children born to single mothers."In our ecclesiastical region there are presbyteries that will not baptise children whose mothers are not married because they have been conceived outside holy wedlock," Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio said in a homily during the closing Mass for the Convention of the ecclesiastical region of Buenos Aires.
The Jesuit cited the example of a poor and unmarried girl who resisted the temptation to abort, had the courage to bring her child into the world and then "found herself on a pilgrimage, going from parish to parish, trying to find someone who would baptise her child."
He said this amounted to a "hijacking" of the sacrament and [drives] "God's people away from salvation".