US priest used wrong baptism words for 26 years – thousands may need to redo rite
- Father Andres Arango has been saying “We baptise you,” instead of the Vatican-sanctioned ‘I baptise you’
- A website has been set up to answer questions from worried parishioners, including: ‘Does this affect my marriage?’ and ‘Do I need to go to confession?’
Thousands of Catholics in the United States may have to be re-baptised after the church discovered a priest had got one word wrong in the blessing for decades – invalidating the rite.
For 26 years, Father Andres Arango had been performing the first sacrament of Catholic life with the words, “We baptise you,” instead of the Vatican-sanctioned “I baptise you.”
“It is not the community that baptises a person and incorporates them into the Church of Christ; rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all sacraments; therefore, it is Christ who baptises,” Thomas J. Olmsted, bishop of Phoenix, said.
Arango’s error was identified in mid-2021, a quarter of a century after he began working as a priest, diocese spokeswoman Katie Burke said on Tuesday.
“Father Arango was using the incorrect words from the beginning of his priesthood until it was brought to the attention of the diocese last summer,” she said.