VATICAN CITY, August 22, 2013 – The Sunday after the Epiphany is the
Sunday of the baptism of Jesus. And on each of these Sundays, year after
year, Benedict XVI administered the first sacrament of Christian
initiation to a certain number of children, in the Sistine Chapel.
Each time, therefore, he had occasion to pronounce the formulas supplied by the rite of baptism in effect since 1969. But two of the words in this rite never entirely convinced him.
And so, before renouncing the chair of Peter, he ordered that they should be changed in the original Latin, and as a result in the modern languages as well.
The provision, which was worked up by the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, was published in the official bulletin of the dicastery, “Notitiae." Its existence was pointed out, amid the silence of the Vatican media, by the newspaper of the Italian episcopal conference, “Avvenire."
Each time, therefore, he had occasion to pronounce the formulas supplied by the rite of baptism in effect since 1969. But two of the words in this rite never entirely convinced him.
And so, before renouncing the chair of Peter, he ordered that they should be changed in the original Latin, and as a result in the modern languages as well.
The provision, which was worked up by the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, was published in the official bulletin of the dicastery, “Notitiae." Its existence was pointed out, amid the silence of the Vatican media, by the newspaper of the Italian episcopal conference, “Avvenire."
