Brady reports priest over baptism

IRELAND
The Tablet

27 September 2013

A priest is facing censure by the Vatican for failing to perform a baptism correctly by allowing the parents and godparents to pour water over the child’s head during the ceremony.

A pro-life campaigner reported Fr Iggy O’Donovan to the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, after witnessing the baptism at a church in Drogheda. Cardinal Brady deemed the baptism unlawful and reported the matter to Rome.

Fr O’Donovan, an Augustinian, has left his parish to begin a one-year sabbatical in Limerick. He and his order have denied that he has already been censured by Rome. Some 1,500 people attended his final Mass.

Following the complaint, the parents of the child were asked by a local priest in Drogheda, acting on behalf of the Cardinal, to have their son re-baptised.

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