Pope Francis baptizes 13 babies today in the Sistine Chapel

 

The Pope baptises babies in the Sistine Chapel

Pope Francis baptises 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel

On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Pope Francis baptizes 13 babies in the splendour of the Sistine Chapel and thanks their parents for bringing them into the Church.

By Linda Bordoni

Pope Francis baptised 13 babies in the magnificent setting provided by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel on the day the Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

The Pope told the parents of the girls and boys whom he ushered into the Catholic Church through baptism that they have the responsibility of making sure their children keep to the path they were put on today.

“Thank you for bringing your children here, for letting them enter the Church”, he said, and repeating the exhortation he has made many times in the past, the Holy Father invited parents and godparents to talk to their children about their baptism, to celebrate its anniversary, and thank God for this grace of becoming Christians.

“Teach your children the date of their baptism, it’s like a birthday, because with Baptism we are reborn into Christian life.”

He urged them to teach the little ones to pray when they are small, because he said,  “prayer is what gives strength throughout life, in good times to thank God, and in bad times to find strength."

In particular, the Pope invited them to teach the children to pray to Our Lady, our Mother, who is always close, especially to those who stray: “Mothers are like that, and that is great."

As he has in the past, the Pope reassured the parents putting them at ease, and telling them to let the babies cry, to feel free to nurse them if they were hungry, and to make sure they weren’t too warm.

The important thing he said, is “May they learn to be Christians.”

“Today is a feast day. The feast of the beginning of a beautiful Christian journey in which you will help your children to go forward. Thank you for your decision to bring them to be baptised!”

The tradition of baptising the children of Holy See employees in the Sistine Chapel on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord was established In 1981 by Pope St. John Paul II.