(NewsNation Now) — To those who aren’t Catholic, using the wrong pronoun during a baptism might not seem like that big of a deal.
But news that a beloved priest said “We baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” when he should have said “I baptize you” roiled an Arizona church last week. The Vatican, in June 2020, issued guidance stating that the “We” formula is invalid, and anyone who was baptized using it must be re-baptized.
Joe Heschmeyer, a staff apologist for Catholic Answers whose job is to help explain issues people may have with Catholicism, told NewsNation’s “Morning in America” that the wrong word causes a much bigger mess than most people might realize.
When a minister, whether it’s a priest or deacon, baptizes someone, they’re standing “in the person of Christ,” just like they do at the altar, Heschmeyer said.
“So when you change that from I baptize you in Christ to we baptize you, meaning the community, you’re no longer doing what we’re called to do by Christ,” Heschmeyer said. “The mission is to go out and baptize the name of the Father and Son of the Holy Spirit, not in your own person.”
Arizona isn’t the first place this situation has played out. A priest at a suburban Detroit church also said “we baptize” instead of “I baptize”nearly two years ago. The Archdiocese of Detroit still hasn’t heard from hundreds of people whose rites at the church are considered invalid.
Heschmeyer likened it to going to lunch with someone who says, “We’ll pay,” at first, but then says, “You’ll pay” once the meal is finished.
“The pronouns here really do matter,” Heschmeyer said.
The point of this isn’t to be legalistic, Heschmeyer said, but for Catholics, the baptism formula is one that’s given by Christ.
“At the heart of it is the question about who and what the sacraments are about,” Heschmeyer said. “Are the sacraments something we do for God? Or are the sacraments something that he does for us?”
Luckily, Heschmeyer said, God won’t condemn anyone because of the mistake.
“No one’s going to go to hell on a technicality,” he said.
Still, those who think their baptism is invalid should still try to get their rites properly, Heschmeyer said.
He added those questioning their own baptism can speak to the pastor about it, as a conditional baptism is possible.