Church says baptisms invalid because priest misused one word

Time and again, pastor Andres Arango, a priest in the Diocese of Phoenix, poured holy water on the heads of his parishioners during baptismal ceremonies, performing the Catholic sacrament that signifies the reversal of all past sins and the birth of an innocent person.

But Arango misused one word that eventually compromised the validity of all of those rituals: Instead of saying “I baptize you,” he used the word “We,” the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has announced in a news release.

Arango’s incorrect word nullified all of the baptisms the priest performed using that language, a probe conducted by the diocese recently revealed.

“If you were baptized using the wrong words, that means your baptism is invalid, and you are not baptized,” the diocese said on its website. “You will need to be baptized.”

Following the news, Arango, who was named pastor of St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix in April 2017, resigned. His resignation became effective Feb. 1.

The mistake goes beyond baptism, the first Catholic sacrament.

Because baptism is a sacrament that opens the door to others, if an individual was improperly baptized by Arango and later received other sacraments, such as confirmation or marriage, they may need to repeat some or all of those sacraments after they are validly baptized.