Rome: Gender Neutral Baptismal Formulas Invalid

By Hugh McNichol
Pewsitter.com

Vatican City - Feb 29, 2008 - The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a correction today and, in simple terms, reaffirmed the Trinitarian formula that constitutes a valid baptism in the Catholic Church.

Responding to a formal inquiry about using modified forms of the Baptismal Rite that replace the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with other descriptions such as Creator, Liberator and Sanctifier the Holy See simply stated that Baptisms that were conducted without proper Trinitarian form were...simply invalid.

Additionally the Holy See through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also affirmed that the form to be used in the administration of Catholic Baptism is, "in forma absoluta."

Clearly this declaration by the Congregation with the approbation of the Holy Father shows the Church's desire to eliminate the rise of feminism within the celebration and completion of our sacramental mysteries. Hinting further this point was not based upon anti-feminist sentiments; the Holy See indicated that the proper form for the celebration of Baptism is scripturally reinforced in Matthew's Gospel, with the mandate to baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is certainly a setback to pro-feminist supporters in the Catholic Church that believe all of our sacramental and liturgical expressions should be gender neutral. Thank God that the Holy See is making true gender identification easily tangible with the restoration of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now perhaps we can get past all of the politically correct, inclusive nonsense and acknowledge the true masculine gender identity of God as Father, Jesus as Man and Son and without any defamation acknowledge Mary as Mother.

Hugh McNichol is a Catholic author that writes freelance works on topics that involve Catholicism. He writes a daily column, verbumcarofactumest.blogspot.com