The Vatican indicated this Saturday that the sacraments and their formulas do not allow changes and therefore it is urged to respect them or they will be considered illicit.
“The sacraments, with their formulas and gestures, do not allow for much creativity. For this reason, in some cases we have found ourselves faced with the invalidity of a baptism and, consequently, also of the other sacraments received,” reads the Gestis document. Verbis published today by the Vatican’s Doctrine of the Faith dicastery.
In the presentation of the document, Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery, explains that, sometimes, the change in the formula then forces “to locate the people involved in repeating the rite of baptism or confirmation and a significant number of faithful have rightly expressed their concern.
Although they have not given figures, the situation is so widespread that already in 2022 numerous bishops “had expressed (to the Vatican) their concern about the multiplication of situations in which the nullity of the sacraments celebrated had been confirmed,” according to the same document.
Changes in the baptism formula are cited as an example, for example: “I baptize you in the name of the Creator…” and “In the name of the father and mother… we baptize you.”
The cardinal explains that “while in other areas of the Church’s pastoral action there is ample space for creativity,” in the context of the celebration of the sacraments “this is rather transformed into a manipulative will.”
Fernández concludes by recalling that “we ministers are required to have the strength to overcome the temptation to feel like owners of the Church” and that “the faithful have the right, in turn, to receive them as the Church provides.”
He therefore emphasizes that “changing, therefore, the form of a sacrament or its matter is always a seriously illicit act and deserves an exemplary penalty, precisely because similar arbitrary gestures are capable of causing serious harm to the faithful People of God.”
“What is read in the promulgated liturgical books must be faithfully observed without ‘adding, removing or changing anything.’ Because if the words or the subject are changed, the sacrament does not exist,” the document adds.
