A rogue "permanent deacon" in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Mark Springer, administered invalid baptisms for 13 years. One of them was to someone who would eventually be "ordained" a priest in 2017 -- only to learn he was never validly baptized himself.
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| Post-Vatican II vernacular baptism book |
To his credit, the priest -- Father Matthew Hood -- watched a video of his baptism and heard the word "We" instead of "I" used in the vernacular formula, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." According to a statement issued by the Archdiocese of Detroit today he immediately contacted the chancery. Hood was then validly baptized, and then all of his other sacraments had to be validly administered, since they required a valid baptism to be valid themselves.
That was the easy part.
Now the archdiocese must find every Catholic who received sacraments from Father Hood, as they were administered by a non-Catholic layman!
And, the archdiocese must do the same for all who thought they were baptized by Deacon Springer, as none of those poor people have received any valid sacraments themselves.
What a mess. The use of the vernacular in the Catholic Church's sacraments has yet again proven to be an absolute failure. It is yet another reminder of the importance of Summorum Pontificum, which grants permission to all clergy for the use 1962 books for all sacraments. In Latin.
One positive thing can be seen in this sacramental disaster: a priest and an archbishop (Allen Vigneron) did the right thing upon learning of the invalid baptism on video. How many priests -- and how many bishops -- would have looked the other way?
