Before baptizing 16 babies in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis reminded parents and godparents of their responsibility to care for and preserve the Christian identity the infants were about to receive.
"This is your task throughout your lives: to guard the Christian identity
There is no place for discrimination or divisive distinctions among people who believe in Christ, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience.
That everyone is made new and equal in Christ overcomes all ethnic, economic and social differences, even between the two
The choral cries of newborn babies will not fill the Sistine Chapel in 2021 because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Pope Francis to cancel his annual celebration of infant baptisms on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
The Vatican press office
Tim O’Malley writes for The Baptism of the Lord, that the Word made flesh, the splendor of the Father, is baptized with a baptism of repentance. In this act, Our Lord places himself in the space of a sinner. He identifies with
Even though the baptisms the pope celebrates most years in the Sistine Chapel are better known, the most important place to be baptized in Rome for the past nearly 1,600 years has been the baptistery of St. John Lateran.
The ancient baptistery was
The Archdiocese of Detroit is seeking to contact anyone who may have received invalid sacraments after a priest of the archdiocese learned his own baptism as an infant 30 years ago was invalid.
On Aug. 6, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of
Changing the words of the formula for baptism render the sacrament invalid, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Specifically, a baptism administered with the formula "We baptize you ..." instead of "I baptize you in the name of the Father
As we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we should remember our own baptisms. Even if we were baptized as infants and cannot remember the event for ourselves, the fruits of the event continue in every moment of our
As Advent approaches, we can easily fall into the hustle and bustle of the season, losing our sense of childlike wonder. But instead of overcomplicating the start of our liturgical year, assistant editor Ava Lalor encourages everyone to slow down and reclaim
Parents must pray that their children embrace and persevere in the gift of faith received at baptism