Priest drowns baby in the name of God.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/baby-drowns-at-baptism/story-e6frf7jx-1225898784756
While I'm sure this is far from a common occurrence, I wonder how often it happens.

Usually they don't do a full-on dunk of the kid, they just throw a few drops of water on the kid's head.

...where, unlike in the Catholic and Protestant churches of the west, baptism requires three immersions rather than just sprinkling water. Still, there are so many baptisms done there, you'd think the only way a priest would not know that you have to cover the baby's nose and mouth would be through the grossest incompetence.

As to how often it happens, I'd guess far less often than parents accidentally drowning their children while giving them baths.

Lastly, I'd wonder about the reliability of this story, considering that it originally comes from Pravda (which, after the fall of the U.S.S.R., reinvented itself as a sensationalist tabloid) and is being reprinted in the Melbourne Herald-Sun, another tabloid owned by Murdoch.

Hmmm....so this is a Russky "Bat boy" type story, perhaps?

I suppose Rupert needs to sell papers, so he can use the money to buy back that worthless stock everyone's dumping!

...but I think it's possible that there could be a scenario where the baby was already ill (if its survival was in doubt, it might explain a rush to have it baptized), and, while the baptism might have been done correctly, the child might have died afterwards, during the long Orthodox liturgy (it's noted in the story that the parents didn't notice the child being "in difficulty" until some time after the immersion). If the death might have been due to natural causes unrelated to the baptism, I could imagine the parents, in their grief, seeking someone to blame, and opting to believe that the priest caused it by botching the immersion (and/or, to be perfectly cynical, hoping that they could get a "wrongful death" settlement from the church)...and I can also imagine the tabloids rushing to spread that account of the story.

Maybe we'll eventually find out what happened, maybe not -- but, at the moment, I'd be less-than-inclined to take the word of either Pravda or a Murdoch tabloid at face-value just on their own say-so.

Here's a clip of the report on Romanian Public TV (if you click the "CC" icon, it gives English captions): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtY2BFs4BLc

Here's a USA Today article on it: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/07/infant-boy-drowns-during-baptism-in-moldovan-village/1

And here's a NY Daily News article on it: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-07-28/news/27071102_1_priest-baptism-baby

you used in your post?

There's a video of the incident in the YouTube link I provided, and Critters2 was kind enough to provide a video of the same thing being done in English, confirming that Orthodox priests submerge an infant, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

The child was deliberately held underwater in the name of God and it died as a result. It was drowned by a priest in the name of God.

Dunked quickly is more like it.

The priest in the video you linked dunked quickly, the one in Moldova did not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtY2BFs4BLc

Watch it--it starts in the middle of the first dunk. The child is held underwater three times.

as I had thought that baptism of infants involved just pouring some water on the head, and that total immersion only occurred in denominations that practice adult baptism. But on checking, I found out that Eastern Orthodox churches do practice immersion of infants. I haven't heard of this sort of tragedy happening before, however.

'em under water, you sprinkle water on them since it's a baby. Or at most, you do an in-and-out. It really makes you wonder about the mental aspects of the priest, well it does me.

Different from Protestant groups that immerse older believers.

I'm no expert on Eastern Orthodox rites. Do they not baptize in the name of God?

Do you think a heart attack during sex is a killing in the name of sex?

Do you think choking on a chicken bone is suffocation in the name of chicken.

You don't need to be an expert to notice an idiotic statement.

And that's the whole point, of course. Kinda reminds me of the medieval canard about Jews sacrificing Christian children.

Don't they say something to the effect of "I baptize you in the name of the father, the son and the holy ghost?" Granted, the actual injury was not supposed to be part of it.

that no one *set out* to drown the child in the name of God (or for any other reason). Nor do baptisms usually result in drowning - far more children drown through their families having pools in their gardens, than through baptism. In fact, in most forms of infant baptism it would be impossible for the child to drown.

I am not a Christian, or a religious believer at all; and I am unhappy with the idea of total immersion baptism for a baby: while drowning even under such circumstances is very rare and would imply negligence or incompetence on the part of the priest, I would expect this form of baptism to be scary and upsetting for the baby even when done safely. But I don't think one can say that the child drowned in the name of God, any more than someone who is run over on the way to church is killed in the name of God.

If you hold an infant underwater and do so, "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," the action is being done in the name(s) of God.

The various analogies offered miss this central point. It's the difference between saying "For the Queen!" and running over a pedestrian vs. running over the same pedestrian on your way to a royal function.

Baby 'drowned' at baptism
27/07/2010 - 18:04:30
... Film shot by relatives shows the baby moving after being taken out of the font, but then suffering difficulty breathing as he is dressed. Twenty minutes later, he started bleeding from his nose and mouth and died ...
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/baby-drowned-at-baptism-467041.html

Is it relevant that this happened a year ago? Events taking place two millennia ago are frequently discussed here.

I thought maybe by now someone would know something beyond the accusations

Clearly the baby did not "drown" in the font; he had air exchange for at least 20 minutes after being baptized. I also find the haemorrhage puzzling. I can't find any reference to such bleeding as a symptom of drowning. Does anyone have the medical knowledge to explain this?

or completely absent. When the findings are negative, cause of death may be given as “consistent with drowning” or even to admit that the cause of death is “undetermined”. The reliable signs of drowning at autopsy are: (1) Fine, white froth at the mouth and nose ... (3) The presence of fine froth in the lungs and air-passages ...
Drowning
Written by Dr. Dinesh Rao
http://www.forensicpathologyonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid=125

If blood issued from nose and mouth, I might suspect a neck injury; but perhaps some hemorrhaging is sometimes possible in asyphyxiation, as the heart attempts to increase circulation, and significant freshwater in the lungs might increase blood volume and blood pressure

Sick bastard. :)