Judge Bork, baptized at 76

U.S. News & World Report ^ | 7/22/03 | Paul Bedard With David LaGesse

[nickcarraway]

It may be a little late to start for most, but Robert Bork, the former Supreme Court nominee who has written books decrying the decline of Western culture, has just been baptized. Rev. C. John McCloskey, who represents the conservative and activist Opus Dei arm of the Roman Catholic Church and oversaw the baptism, said, "I can confirm that he was received in the Catholic Church." Bork, a scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was raised a Protestant and had called himself a "generic Protestant." He was known more for his conservative legal views, which some Democrats used to shoot down his court nomination during the Reagan administration.

In a brief interview, he said that years of "conversations and reading" led him to baptism at McCloskey's small Catholic Information Center chapel on K Street near the White House. "There's more to talk about than you can put in a brief story." He called himself a regular Catholic who attends Sunday mass, not an Opus Dei member.

He said talks with and recommendations from the priest, as well as attending church with his wife, Mary Ellen Bork, a former nun, helped pave the way to the ceremony.

Bork's sponsors were Kate O'Beirne, a conservative media star, and John O'Sullivan, head of UPI.

Lots of other prominent Catholics were there, such as columnist and speechwriter Peggy Noonan, herself a convert.

McCloskey has made several other high-level conversions of conservatives, bringing into the Catholic Church conservative columnist Robert Novak and Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.

The best part of getting baptized at 76, said Bork: "If you get baptized at my age, all of your sins are forgiven. And that's very helpful."

According to Archdiocese of Washington Communications Director Susan Gibbs, Msgr. William Awalt, the longtime pastor of the Borks, baptized the judge, confirmed him and gave him First Communion. Father McCloskey celebrated the Mass, along with Msgr. Peter Vaghi, pastor of St. Patrick's.

[philosofy123]

Perhaps the Catholics have better product, or better sales staff?

[mdmathis6]

"Heaven resists the complications men would ascribe to her!"


I made that statement up out of frustration after reading all the complicated gobbledy gooky theories about this sacrament and that dispensation...yada...yada and that reformation and that one chuch Vaticanized yada...yada!. God wants all men to know him...Christ knew the way would be hard because the reality is so simple, ...you have to learn to be a child again.

You know the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts...should put all of us to shame. For a eunuch...he sure had a "brass pair" in terms of child like faith!

[mdmathis6]

sorry double post!

[mdmathis6]

The thief had faith that Jesus on the cross was Lord."Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom!"

It was not an amorphous faith in God or nature. The thief knew who his Saviour was!

[Simcha7]

Shalom!

Thorondir,

"An adult who goes to be baptized into the body of Christ must certainly be asking Jesus into his heart."

NOT Necessarily.

And why may I ask...is your tone so Biting and Nasty to...Chewbacca?

Chewbacca is stating the Truth, one must be Born Again before Baptism....READ What Yeshua/Jesus The Messiah/Christ had to say about this issue in the Gospel According to John chapter 3.

Jesus is speaking directly to Nicodemus and to ALL of us as well!

So...before you go on the attack...be prepared with knowing the Truth.

And Please read for Yourself (the entire chapter) John chapter 3 before You answer me.

Thank You and GOD Bless.

[Campion]

If the Catholic Church does not recognize the prior baptiam, is the non-recognition due to the absence of what Rome regards as legitimate and continuous apostolic succession in the Protestant churches (Episcopals included)?

No. Apostolic succession is not required for baptism, since (in Catholic theology) anyone is a valid minister of the sacrament, as long as they intend to do what the church does, that is, baptize in the Name of the Trinity.

Sometimes Protestants who become Catholic are conditionally baptized, if they were originally baptized by sprinkling, or if they can't show any evidence of their original baptism and no witnesses can be found.

But it sounds to me like Judge Bork was never baptized at all.

[haole]

1 Peter 3:21
Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

[Campion]

NOT Necessarily.

The Catholic liturgy of baptism requires the adult baptizand to publicly renounce sin and profess his faith in Jesus Christ before witnesses, at least orally and sometimes in writing.

When people do that in an evangelical church, they call it "receiving Jesus into their heart" and show up here announcing that they are infallibly saved and ready to put those awful Catholics in their place.<humor>

When people do that in a Catholic church, it's greeted with all sorts of suspicion. The Bible doesn't say "If you confess Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, unless you say and believe those things in a Catholic Church, in which case it's just an empty ritual" ... does it?

[Simcha7]

Shalom!

Campion,

I would Never say that Catholics are awful and must be put in their place.

The only place I want to see Catholics is in HEAVEN!

Many Catholics are my brothers and sisters in CHRIST!

Many, many years ago...in 1985 to be exact...

I attended a Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group and that is Exactly where...I Became Born Again/Saved By The Precious BLOOD of Yeshua/Jesus The Messiah/Christ!

So...I am NOT into Catholic Bashing.

What I am into is The Word of GOD and The Truth.

[mdmathis6]

No, Baptism is the symbolic putting off of the old man and taking up the new man. It was not meant to be a means of CONFERRAL of Salvation by church leaders, it is to be an example of an individual's Obediance to Christ, to show publically that he has internally accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour and allowed his Holy Spirit to regenerate his inner man. To "become a new creature in Christ Jesus" having the living dynamic of the Holy Spirit in his heart!

This regeneration is what happened to the thief on the cross, I'm sure if circustances were other wise he would have also followed his Lord's example by being Baptized by water!

A man is BORN first by water, by the gushing of fluids from the amniotic sack. He is born spiritually by the flooding of his soul by the Holy Spirit...or born again. Read Acts 8:26 thru 39 as to how the Ethiopian Eunuch was saved.

And did I say that all Catholics don't follow the process of confession followed by Baptism? No!....What I'm saying is that many Protestants and Catholics focus on the ritual part of Baptism, with-out understanding (or from the heart accepting) that there must be an internal work of the Spirit as well. That was what Chewbacca was talking about that got him in so much hot water a few posts back.

[montag813]

Father McCloskey also converted Larry Kudlow.

Kudlow converted??? I guess it was either Jesus or the white powder.

[friendly]

Tony Blair, a Protestant, regularly attends Catholic Church with his Judge wife, a devout Catholic, and their children. It has been rumored for some time that Mr. Blair is considering conversion to Catholicism.

[Campion]

It was not meant to be a means of CONFERRAL of Salvation by church leaders

Nobody has ever said such a blasphemous thing. God confers salvation, not "church leaders". How he does it is up to him, not to us, and rather than inventing theologies about "accepting Jesus as personal Lord and Savior" (a phrase not found in Scripture), we ought to stick closely to what he said about the process in Scripture. As in, for example, the passage where Ananias tells Paul to wash away his sins in baptism.

it is to be an example of an individual's Obediance to Christ, to show publically that he has internally accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour

Nothing in Scripture says anything like that. If that were all baptism is -- a public show -- why would a private baptism be useful, valid, or helpful? Yet the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized by the side of the road, with nobody watching. If I recall correctly, Paul baptized his jailer and the jailer's whole household in the middle of the night!The Church fathers recount how baptisms in ancient times were conducted at night, and with the baptizands naked -- hardly an occasion publicly showing anything! (We would hope.)

God doesn't command rituals for public show. In fact, he stridently condemned some of the Jews for turning their piety into a public exhibition.

Paul says flatly that "as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." "Putting on Christ" sounds pretty momentous to me. I'd say that's a better starting point for a theology of baptism than any supposition that baptism is merely a public announcement that someone now considers himself a Christian.

[VOA]

Just being honest here...
While Catholcism may not be my personal "cup of tea" for my faith...
after 9-11, I really take the C.S. Lewis view of the "Great Hall" of Christendom
with a number of doors for all the entry-ways to Christianity.

When anyone enters the Christian world, I rejoice and don't quibble.

And realizing they didn't get pulled into Islam...I doubly rejoice.

I must admit I've been rather shocked and happy at Laura Ingraham's open joy at
her entry into the Catholic fold. And I've only heard snippets about Larry Kudlow's
leaving substance abuse behind and finding Christianity.
I bet there is a heck of a story behind Kudlow's life-change.

As I say about a meek and mild old fellow from my home church (who we NOW know
was a h-ll-raising stone-killer paratrooper in WWII)...
"it is no secret what G-d can do" in remolding a person into a better being.

[mdmathis6]

You called it a "conferral of justification", not me! God grants justification by the faith of a man in his son Jesus.Baptism was to be our fisrt step of obedience to Christ

And we are commanded to be baptized, and it is a public example...even with only one or two witnesses. We are to to proclaim our faith publicically,"so that Christ will acknowledge us before the father". To use your logic ...all Catholic Baptisms must occur secretly and at night in order for them to be valid.

As for Baptism...there were different traditons for it. even in Paul's time. I remember seeing a mosaic from the Early orthodox Church where early converts washed themselves publically as a sign of them "repenting and having their sins washed away"(Your quote by Ananias).

Then the example from Acts 8 where Philip "baptizes" the Ethiopian(Baptizmo=immersion literally burial). But this does not negate the fact thatthere must be faith that proceeds the act ...the act itself doesn't seal the fate of the soul, in the end, faith in Jesus does!

[LadyDoc]

FYI: The Catholic church will even recognize a baptism by a non believer, if the non believer does it in sympathy with the belief of the person being baptised, or his/her parent/guardian.

When we were in medical school, all students were taught to baptise infants if the mother was a Catholic. My Jewish friend baptised several very sick or dying infants.

There is still a theological debate about this (limbo for unbaptised infants is a tradition, but not a dogma, and some believe infants probably go to heaven.) but knowing her infant was baptised was and is a comfort to a grieving mother. So my Jewish friends baptised, not as believers, but as an act of charity so that the mother's religious beliefs would be honored. Usually they got the chaplain or a Catholic nurse to do it, but sometimes there just isn't time...

[mdmathis6]

"Paul says flatly that "as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." "Putting on Christ" sounds pretty momentous to me. I'd say that's a better starting point for a theology of baptism than any supposition that baptism is merely a public announcement that someone now considers himself a Christian."

What do you think Baptism is, but the symbolic putting off of the old man and the raising up of the new. What is this new man..but "the Putting on of Christ". And what is this Christ,but the very Resurrected son of God! We put off death and we put on the resurrection. I didn't say the baptism was for mere public show, it was the first obedient steps of faith that new Christians were to take, it is a "momentous solid thing", meant to be done publically, or at least in front of witnesses. Christ himself was Baptized openly! It is not a showy bragging sort of thing to be done, but rather it is an open break from the former things in order to take up a new resurrected life

[austinTparty]

We have a winner!!!

Doesn't anyone else (Catholic) here remember when their children were baptized? Baptism by desire is always discussed in preparation for the sacrament. Also, when I was godmother for my niece, the priest left the choice of "to immerse or not to immerse" up to the parents (they had a huge baptismal font with a fountain). Some churches allow parents to bring a special recipient to aid in pouring the holy water... in other words, there's not only one way to put together the water and the baptisand!

[austinTparty]

Actually, the notion that innocents go to "limbo" is NOT Catholic doctrine. At the preparatory classes for my children's baptisms, inevitably someone asked about this, and the priest took them to task for it. That God would condemn an aborted or newborn baby to limbo because no one had a bottle of water handy is simply nonsense; see other discussion regarding "baptism by desire" for further explanation. That being said, it obviously would give great comfort to the family of a grievously ill child to know that they had been baptised.

[wideawake]

That's the position of many Reformed Christians, but not all.

I know the sons of a Presbyterian minister who were not baptized until their mid-teens.