[Catholic Caucus] Papal Baptism of the Conjoined Twins Was a Blessing — and a Puzzle

National Catholic Register ^ | August 12, 2020 | Father Raymond J. de Souza

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[Catholic Caucus] Papal Baptism of the Conjoined Twins Was a Blessing — and a Puzzle

COMMENTARY: The fact that the 2-year-old girls were not baptized earlier, by someone else, suggests an inexplicable pastoral failure to heed Pope Francis’ stress on the supreme importance of the sacrament.

A pastoral puzzle remains. How is it that the pastors, chaplains, doctors and nurses caring for the Bangalo twins in Bangui and in Rome did not see to it that the girls were baptized long before they turned 2 years old? No child in good health should have a baptism delayed for that length of time. Children in danger of death, or gravely sick, should be baptized immediately, even by the parents or medical personnel without waiting to call a priest. Certainly, any baby undergoing serious surgery should be baptized beforehand.

The Bangalo twins were in contact with Bambino Gesù since July 2018. It is likely the Vatican diplomatic corps assisted with their transfer from Bangui to Rome. Certainly Bambino Gesù has chaplains regularly on site. Any Catholic pediatric hospital should, as a matter of routine procedure, encourage Catholic parents to have their children baptized and be able to assist with the sacrament at a moment’s notice.

How is it that in the mammoth multiyear, international effort to separate the twins physically from each other, their eternal union with God was apparently overlooked? Did no one hear the Holy Father’s frequent exhortations to remember our baptismal dates? Did it not occur to someone along the way that there can be no baptismal anniversary to celebrate if there is no baptism in the first place? It appears that an outstanding medical success was accompanied by a rather staggering pastoral failure.

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Ping

[Bayard]

Pope talks about the importance of the earth and environmentalism and is surprised that people don’t have any regard for heaven and how a person gets there.

You can’t ignore either the supreme importance of bringing up kids to value heaven in preference over the world. That’s the message people constantly forget and have all but totally forgotten in this age.

[Campion]

Why on earth would you not baptize them before the surgery ?!??

[Hieronymus]

Possibly because someone is even more theologically lost than the Pope.

I doubt that he was approached about the situation before the surgery.

Sometimes things slip through the cracks nearly inexplicably: I am reminded of an Easter Vigil where, some how, a lemon made its way through the hands of two assistant MC’s, into a basin which was part of the gear hauled by two altar boys under the supervision of the MC to the chair of the celebrant for the cleansing of the fingers from the Holy Oils, with the celebrant being the first to discover that the lemon was uncut. Fortunately, the celebrant was given the grace, and corresponded to it, to react with a smile.

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I doubt that he was approached about the situation before the surgery.

I strongly disagree.

The Bangalo twins were in contact with Bambino Gesù since July 2018. It is likely the Vatican diplomatic corps assisted with their transfer from Bangui to Rome. Certainly Bambino Gesù has chaplains regularly on site. Any Catholic pediatric hospital should, as a matter of routine procedure, encourage Catholic parents to have their children baptized and be able to assist with the sacrament at a moment’s notice.

I think Francis had been made aware of it for over two years. Just as he was aware of Mr. McCarrick's crimes, years earlier.

[Hieronymus]

I hope you’re wrong, but in the end have no grounds for questioning your position or supporting my own.

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I hope you’re wrong, but in the end have no grounds for questioning your position or supporting my own.

My opinion, and my opinion only, is based on Francis' reluctance to bring people into the Catholic faith, whether they're already baptized or not, e.g. Jews, Muslims, etc. He has discouraged converting members of the latter two faiths.

As for the former, baptized non-catholics:

(Tony) Palmer and Bergoglio had intense discussions about Christian separation, using the analogy of apartheid in South Africa. They found common ground in believing that institutional separation breeds fear and misunderstanding. Bergoglio, whom Palmer called “Father Mario,” acted as a spiritual father to the Protestant cleric, calming him (“he wanted to make me a reformer, not a rebel,” Palmer told me) and encouraging him in his mission to Christian unity.

At one point, when Palmer was tired of living on the frontier and wanted to become Catholic, Bergoglio advised him against conversion for the sake of the mission.

“We need to have bridge-builders”, the cardinal told him.

[piusv]

From early on in his pontificate, a distinctive refrain of the Holy Father’s had been that Catholics should remember the day of their baptism and celebrate it. It’s at least as important as a birthday, which every culture remembers and celebrates. Pope Francis has encouraged adults to check with their parents, or to consult the family records, to learn the date of their baptism, which most people do not know. Commemorating baptismal anniversaries will remind Catholics of the supreme importance of baptism, the Holy Father believes.

Does anyone know what article/interview/audience the author is referencing here "from early on in his pontificate"? I would like to see what Francis said about baptism. What is the supreme importance according to him?