Pope baptizes 28 children

January 09, 2017

In a Mass celebrated ad orientem in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis administered the Sacrament of Baptism to 28 children of Vatican employees on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which fell this year on January 8 on the General Roman Calendar.

(The feast is transferred to the following day in those places, such as the United States, where Epiphany was celebrated on January 8.)

“In the ceremony of Baptism you will be given a lighted candle, as in the first times of the Church,” the Pope said in his brief, extemporaneous homily. “And therefore Baptism, in those times, was called ‘illumination,’ because faith illuminates the heart, and enables us to see things in another light.”

“You have asked for faith: the Church gives the faith to your children with Baptism, and you have the task of making it grow, protecting it, so that it becomes a witness for all others,” he added. “This is all I wanted to say to you: protect the faith, make it grow, so that it may be a testimony to others.”

 

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Further information:

• 2017.01.08 Eucharist with Baptism of infants (YouTube Vatican)
• Santa Messa nella Cappella Sistina con il rito del Battesimo dei bambini, 08.01.2017 (Holy See Press Office)
• Booklet for the Celebration (Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff)
• Francis baptises 28 children in the Sistine Chapel, 08.01.2017 (Holy See Press Office)