by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(Mar. 3, 2008) A popular baptism rite incorporating an “inclusive language” version of the Trinity has been declared invalid by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Anyone who received the sacrament of baptism under this formula must be baptized again.
The two formulas which were declared invalid by the CDF are “I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier”, and “I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer.”
“Variations to the baptismal formula – using non-biblical designations of the Divine Persons . . .arise from so-called feminist theology,” the CDF said in an accompanying explanatory note to the new teaching, which was written by Monsignor Antonio Miralles, professor of dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Holy Cross University.
Monsignor Miralles explains that this language is an attempt “to avoid using the words Father and Son which are held to be chauvinistic, substituting them with other names. Such variants, however, undermine faith in the Trinity.”
The formula has been declared invalid not because of its feminist origin, however, but because it fails to express the Catholic belief in the Holy Trinity.
“Baptism conferred in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit obeys Jesus’ command as it appears at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew,” Monsignor Miralles writes. “The baptismal formula must be an adequate expression of Trinitarian faith, approximate formulae are unacceptable.”
Anyone who has been baptized using either of these formulas should be re-baptized. For canonical purposes, people who were baptized with these new formulas should be considered unbaptized, Monsignor Miralles writes. .
“This implies that if they have received other sacraments, they are invalid as well and should be re-administered.”
Father Tom Weinandy, executive director of the U.S. bishops Secretariat of Doctrine, told Catholic News Service that people over the age of 45 to 50 “have nothing to fear” concerning the validity of their baptism. Those under 50 shouldn’t “have a huge amount of fear” either, he said.
Unless a witness at the baptism knows that an incorrect formula was used, “it is assumed they used the right formula,” he said.
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