Earlier this week, we looked at a rather confused article about one man’s quest to get his baptism annulled. Well, the New York Daily News decided to do a baptism article that is even more confused:
JERUSALEM — Archbishop Dolan followed in the footsteps of John the Baptist Sunday and was rebaptized in the River Jordan during the lastest stop on his Holy Land pilgrimage.
In a word: No. I don’t know Dolan, and I know nothing about his trip to Israel, and yet I know this is horribly incorrect. How the New York Daily News could not know that “rebaptism” is not something that any orthodox Catholic would believe, teach or practice, is just beyond me.
Christians believe in, as Ephesians 4 says, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” The Nicene Creed, the most widely used statement of faith throughout Christendom, includes this last part: “I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”
Even if you only know the name of Aretha Franklin’s gospel album, you should know that this is a pretty basic teaching of Christianity.
The story gives a nice overview of Dolan’s trip to Israel with 50 American priests, where he got to see some of the sites I was able to see during my trip there last year — Masada, the Mount of Beatitudes, etc.
We learn more details about the visit to the Jordan:
But the stop in the Jordan Rift Valley proved among the most powerful.
“We renewed our baptismal vows at the River Jordan,” Dolan said.
John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the same river in the New Testament.
Oh! So he renewed his baptismal vows! The thing that many Catholics do each year around the Easter vigil? Is that what we’re talking about? That’s not rebaptism, Daily News.
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Comments (10) |
February 1, 2012, at 2:00 pm
Archbishop Dolan has become an Anabaptist? Cool! Next: Lutheran indulgences.
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February 1, 2012, at 2:01 pm
Many Catholics AND others.
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February 1, 2012, at 2:29 pm
The sub-head for the article further punctuates the two authors’ sacramental ignorance: “Rebaptized in River Jordan.”
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February 1, 2012, at 2:33 pm
Removing Names from Church Membership Records (Mormon)
An adult member who wishes to have his or her name removed from the membership records of the Church must send the bishop a written, signed request (not a form letter). A request that Church representatives not visit a member is not sufficient to initiate this action.
The bishop makes sure that a member who requests name removal understands the consequences: it cancels the effects of baptism and confirmation, withdraws the priesthood held by a male member, and revokes temple blessings.
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February 1, 2012, at 2:34 pm
I can see how someone who knows absolutely nothing about the idea of “renewal of baptismal vows” could leap to the assumption that it meant getting baptized again.
For example, my wife and I get remarried every other year or so in church.
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February 1, 2012, at 4:00 pm
JTrevors,
I think it would go without saying that the Mormon understanding of Baptism and the Catholic understanding are very, very different.
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February 1, 2012, at 4:14 pm
Interestingly, I have never interpreted Ephesians 4:5 to say that a person may only be baptized once in one’s life, but rather to say that there is only one kind of baptism (i.e., into Christ in the name of the Trinity) that is taught by the Church.
This is not to say that I don’t agree that a person is to be baptized only once (per the WCF and, I’m sure, most other standard Christian catechisms), but that that particular Bible passage does not necessarily make the point.
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February 1, 2012, at 6:01 pm
My wife and I are renewing our marriage vows (with 30 other couples)in our parish the Sunday before SAINT VALENTINE’s Day. However, none of us is getting re-married.
What puzzles me is why reporters doing a religious story can’t take 5 or 10 minutes to have someone who really knows the religion being reported on to check it for “howlers.”
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February 2, 2012, at 9:19 am
Reporters may not often go to church but they do go to the movies. So here’s how to explain the renewal of baptismal vows to them: Remember the scene in the Godfather when Michael’s nephew is being baptized and all his enemies are being gunned downed and he affirms that he “renounces Satan and all of his works”? He is speaking the baptismal vows there on behalf of his nephew; Catholics from time to time renew them on their own behalf with the same words.
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February 2, 2012, at 5:45 pm
I assume that Abp Dolan would need to be baptized for (as the locals would understand the situation) the first time were he to join the congregation of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where the Aretha Franklin album in question was recorded.
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