Pell backs stand against 'invalid' baptisms

Catholic New Times, Jan 16, 2005

SYDNEY -- Hundreds of Australian children may have to be re-baptized after senior church figures in the country declared their baptisms invalid. Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney and Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, has backed Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane who declared publicly two weeks ago that children baptized at a south Brisbane church using non-traditional words would have to be re-baptized.

Hundreds of children have been baptized at St Mary's Church in the past decade using the words "Creator, Liberator and Sustainer" instead of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Pell has backed Bathersby's stand against "radical" changes to the sacrament of baptism, which were brought to his attention after a complaint by a disgruntled grandparent.

Bathersby said: "The words of scripture can't be adjusted to suit our own taste; the next thing we'll be getting rid of Christ himself." Supporting Bathersby, Pell said using the "correct" formulae is necessary, for priests and congregations to remain in communion with the universal Catholic Church. "People come to the Catholic Church believing that they are going to receive a Catholic baptism ceremony based on Catholic doctrine. It would be wrong for them to be misled on that."

Pell agreed the baptisms might need to be performed again because "those words that were allegedly used would constitute invalidity." But he stopped short of saying priests who used the wrong form of words should be thrown out of the church. "Just because a person is making a mistake doesn't automatically put them outside the church," he said.

Fr. Peter Kennedy and Fr. Terry Fitzpatrick of St. Mary's have been using the alternative words as part of its baptism services for at least a decade. Fr. Kennedy said he was "gobsmacked" by Bathersby's public pronouncements since November 22. The parish agreed to return to the traditional words two months ago when the issue first arose, even though Kennedy does not accept that former baptisms are invalid. He says the alternative words were based on the doctrine of the Trinity. "When we use the words 'God the Creator, Liberator and Sustainer', it's just another way of expressing the trinitarian formula," he said.