For shame. From the blog American Papist a reminder of how perceived hegemony and uncharitable myopia turns a tragedy into an opportunity to snipe.
A tragic reminder why the Church, in its wisdom, has chosen against full immersion of infants for baptism:(Pravda.ru) - A shocking incident occurred in the village of Mihaileny of Rishcansky district of Moldova with a boy named Laurentiu, who was born six weeks ago in the family of 24-year-old Ludmila and Dmitry Gaydeu.
.. Approximately twenty of the closest relatives and friends came to the church at 4:30PM. Father Valentin began the baptism ceremony.
“He dipped the baby in the water without even covering the baby’s mouth with his hand to prevent him from drowning,” recalls Dmitry Gaydeu, the father of the six weeks-old Laurentiu. “He put his hand on his stomach and dipped him in the water three times.”
The Godparents saw that the boy was not well and warned father Valentine. He answered it was not the first time that he was conducting the ceremony and knew what he was doing. When they saw that the child showed no signs of life, he was immediately taken to the district hospital.
I do not mean to take away at all from the sadness of the story, but the parents may find some small solace that this child surely died in a state of perfect grace.
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Update from the blogger:
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: I’ve received a great deal of feedback and criticism of my initial wording of this post’s introduction. I did not mean to be insensitive to the traditions of the Eastern Catholic Churches (or, as some correctly pointed out, the universal tradition of the Church beginning at the earliest Apostolic times). My theology professors would be mortified to see me guilty of such imprecision.
I love and appreciate the beauty and sacramental symbolism of full immersion, and I would agree that this fatality referenced above is more the fault of the priest conducting the baptism, than the intrinsic nature of the liturgical form used.
It’s no defense, but I wrote this post in a hurried fashion at first, and while I paused before publishing it because I realized the theological issues raised with my introduction, I believed they would be passed over in the interest of the actual story. My discerning readers, of course, miss nothing! And I am grateful especially for the charitable rebukes I have received which have caused me to remove the problematic introduction. My apologies.
Well, good on him for apologizing publicly. I see Father Z has sent his link to the story down the memory hole.
ReplyDeleteIt is distressing to see the unthinking contempt that some (by no means all) Latin rite enthusiasts have for the Eastern rite.
I had one Latin Rite apologist insist that the Eastern tradition of infant communion was inferior to the later developed First Communion and later Confirmation that the Latin Rite adopted in the 1200s -- even if the Latin Rite (and all Apostolic Churches) originally celebrated Confirmation and Eucharist with its infants for the first millennium. The received tradition from the Fathers was not good enough. Rather, the medieval Latin tradition was considered an improvement over the universal practice of the early Church!
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