Vatican Fundamentalism
Last week the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith released a pronouncement that those who were baptized with the celebrant using a phrase other than the words: "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" must be re-baptized. This pronouncement was in response to questions about the use of other phraseology by protestant & feminist ministers such as "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier." According to the pronouncement, those who have been baptized by a minister or priest who used such phraseology should be considered unbaptized in the Christian faith. According to the statement that was approved by Pope Benedict XVI (another example of what my friend Ginger calls "creeping infallibility"), Jesus ordered his apostles to baptize Christians "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," that any other language does not adequately express the Trinitarian nature of God. I find it disappointing that the Vatica...