One word error made thousands of baptisms invalid

Catholic pastor in Arizona resigns after learning he has been performing the sacrament wrong for decades

A Catholic priest in Phoenix, Arizona resigned this month after discovering that throughout his lengthy ministry he had been using an incorrect formula when conferring baptisms. A one-word mistake meant that thousands of people, who thought they’d been properly baptized were actually not. It called into question their reception of all other sacraments, including the ordainments of those, who became clerics themselves.

The unfortunate news was broken in mid-January by Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix. In a letter to the parish cited by the Catholic News Network, he wrote that “baptisms performed by Reverend Andres Arango, a priest of the Diocese of Phoenix, are invalid.”

The bishop cited a doctrinal note issued by the Vatican in August 2020, which said that the formula “We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” could not be used for baptism. The proper language is to say “I” instead of “We,” contrary to what father Andres did.

“The issue with using ‘We’ is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes,” the bishop explained.

The letter stressed that Olmsted didn’t suspect the priest of any malice. Arango “has not disqualified himself” from his ministry and remains in good standing with the church, the diocese said.

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Nevertheless, the cleric decided to resign his position, starting February 1. He set out in a letter that he was deeply sorry about his error and the trouble that it caused and said he wanted to “dedicate my energy and full-time ministry to help remedy this and heal those affected.” The diocese pledged its full support for the endeavor.

Some members of the community don’t want Andres to leave. As a pastor, he “reinvigorated the church community by renovating its facilities, giving parishioners and faith seekers a spiritual home that is open to all,” an online petition, calling for him to remain the spiritual leader of the parish, explained.

Before moving to the US, Arango had served in Brazil, in the Diocese of Sao Salvador da Bahia, in the late 1990s. He spent several years in California before becoming a pastor in St. Jerome Parish in Phoenix in 2005. He served as a parochial vicar at St. Anne in Gilbert, Arizona and then at St. Gregory Parish, where he later became a pastor.

In a FAQ section on its website, the diocese urged anyone who knows or suspects that they or their children were baptized by Arango to contact them. According to the explainer, a person who was not validly baptized should not receive Holy Communion. It also renders invalid a subsequent sacrament of confirmation and holy orders, which would be a problem for any ordained priest, who had been baptized with an improper formula. It’s not exactly clear how the error affects matrimony.

The diocese said that the concern over a single pronoun “may seem legalistic,” but the use of a proper form – words, actions and materials – was as crucial as the spiritual aspect of a sacrament. “Baptism is a requirement for salvation,” it stressed. However, it added “while God instituted the sacraments for us, He is not bound by them.”

“We can be assured that all who approached God, our Father, in good faith to receive the sacraments did not walk away empty-handed,” the diocese said.