Earlier this week Catholics who have been baptized by Reverend Andres Arango found out that they may not be confirmed Catholics. This revelation came after uncovering that Reverend Arango in Phoenix, Arizona had been using the incorrect phrase to officiate confirmation, holy orders, and marriages. Instead of saying “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” he used “We baptize you.” In their released statement, the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix explained that the incorrect words voided the ceremonial significance, thereby invalidating the sacraments. The publicization of this error and Arango’s consequential resignation made headlines as other diocese found this mistake occurring in their own congregations.
Since the news broke on February 15th, the search terms “Catholic Church” and “invalid” have generated 3.54K mentions and reached an audience of 61.87M users. The conversations scored a net sentiment score of 3.66% positive mentions and 96.34% negative mentions.
Reactions overall tend to have either a critical or comedic take in referencing past criticisms of the Catholic Church.
Huh, who would have thought that pronouns would have been the things to complealty unravel the catholic church….
— Whiskey_RedBeard (@WhiskeyRedBeard) February 16, 2022
They are very touchy about that whole trinity thing. Catholic Church have been redefining pronouns since they said three is singular. Pearly gatekeeping.
— merever (@merever3) February 14, 2022
https://twitter.com/cryptidfluffy/status/1494316431097409542?s=10
https://twitter.com/titaniabird/status/1493595191478992903?s=10
As for how the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is handling this, they have taken an apologetic crisis communication approach. Specifically in Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s statement, he expressed the diocese’s sincerest apologies and vowed that they would do everything that they could in contacting those who were affected and correcting the mistake. Additionally, he made it clear that the Church leadership viewed it as an unintentional mistake on Arango’s part and urged his congregation and fellow Catholics to keep the former Reverend and those affected in prayer. The Diocese of Phoenix website additionally had laid out a clear and easy to use FAQ section regarding the validity of baptisms and how to alert them if someone believes that they have been negatively affected by the mistake.
While Arango has resigned his position, he remains in good standing as a priest and is working to remedy his mistake. You can read more about the Diocese of Phoenix’s position here.
Author: Eden Wallace
