PM - Wednesday, 24 November , 2004 19:08:54

Reporter: Ian Townsend

MARK COLVIN: The Roman Catholic Church has told two of its priests that hundreds of their parishioners may have to be re-baptised, on the grounds that they've been using an "invalid" baptismal service.

Instead of the words "Father, Son and Holy Spirit", Saint Mary's Catholic Church in South Brisbane has for the past decade been substituting the words "Creator, Liberator and Sustainer".

Church officials say that appears to be a breach of church laws and many parents who thought their children were baptised, might be in for a shock.

Ian Townsend reports.

IAN TOWNSEND: Saint Mary's is an inner city Catholic Church in Brisbane. It has a community of 3,000, it does good work with many inner city poor, and it's also made a name for itself for being progressive.

Its two priests wear East Timorese stoles. And what's also brought it into conflict with the Catholic Church hierarchy is its use of the words "Creator Liberator and Sustainer" for the Holy Trinity. In fact, the Catholic Church's regional tribunal in Brisbane, says the priests have invalidated some ceremonies in which these words were used - especially, it seems, the many baptisms performed at the church in the past decade.

The tribunal's judicial vicar is Father Adrian Farrelly.

ADRIAN FARRELLY: They simply haven't received baptism. They've gone through - they've gone through a ceremony and they may well think that it's baptism, but the fact of the matter is that it isn't.

IAN TOWNSEND: As you can imagine, this has upset many of the parishioners. The two priests at St Mary's, Father Peter Kennedy and Father Terry Fitzpatrick, have baptised hundreds of children in this non-traditional way. The priests have declined to comment this afternoon. They've already reverted to the traditional reference to the Holy Trinity after the church crackdown.

But that doesn't solve the problem of what the church says is hundreds of unbaptised Brisbane Catholics. Father Farrelly says it's a serious matter.

ADRIAN FARRELLY: For all sorts of good reasons, at times people will decide well we can do it this way or that way, but . when you're dealing with the spiritual lives of people, there is a need to have like a quality assurance that one . that one is giving to the people what it is they're asking - the words, the words that you use are important words that I use at mass, are important . like the words even in a contract, if you were going to . if you were going to sell me something. If the words didn't say what I thought they said, like, I might believe that you sold it to me, but in actual fact you haven't . so, like the implications are quite serious.

IAN TOWNSEND: But many of the church's parishioners are backing their priests. Margaret Ridley, for instance, has had her three children baptised at St Mary's

MARGARET RIDLEY: There's an enormous amount of support for Peter Kennedy and his assistant, Terry Fitzpatrick . personally and for the work that they do.

IAN TOWNSEND: Would you be getting your children re-baptised there?

MARGARET RIDLEY: No, no, they've been baptised Christians, and I'm confident that that's . will stand them in good stead.

IAN TOWNSEND: Father Farrelly, though, says concerned St Mary's parishioners should contact the church, to check whether or not the church actually recognises their baptism.

ADRIAN FARRELLY: Make an appointment with a priest and ask to have their child baptised in the way that the church has said it is to be done.

IAN TOWNSEND: Would that be a recommendation of the church?

ADRIAN FARRELLY: Well the thing is otherwise the person .the person is isn't baptised, and so everything . baptism's the doorway into everything else that happens within the church .. and so the implications are very serious.

MARK COLVIN: Father Adrian Farrelly, from the Catholic Church's regional tribunal of Brisbane.

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A response from a UC pastor:

First of all, the Uniting Church (in Australia) requires a specific form of words for baptism to avoid exactly the kind of intolerable situation where others can raise questions about the validity of one's baptism (see /Uniting in Worship/). Having said that, the validity of baptism does not, of course, depend on a particular form of words alone in some kind of magic way.

Baptism has been the second most controversial issue the Uniting Church has had to deal with, so we have quite a lot of documentation on it, which I hope to summarise and review for /Uniting Church Studies/ over the Christmas break (if things quieten down). If anyone wants to do further reading on baptism, a very accessible book (which you can give to a church member) is William Willimon's /Remember Who You Are/. Although we may want to nuance a bit (a bit too Zwinglian?) what he says there, it is a useful start.

Personally, I think we need to make the link between baptism and costly discipleship much more clearly. We are living in the afterglow of Christendom, when infants were indiscriminately baptised. Many grandmas pressure to have babies baptised, partly because they like the sentiment and (understandably) feel the need to ritualise the birth of a child, and maybe partly because they have a secret, but superstitious hope that it offers fire insurance(?). As others have noted, ministers are often faced with difficult pastoral problems, wanting to affirm the grace of God for all, and proclaim God's welcome and hospitality, whilst not dispensing cheap grace.

I suspect a recovery of the doctrine of baptism will go a long way to repositioning the church for the future.