thanks to Fr. Tim Finigan in the U.K.

The recent Vatican statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, February 1, 2008, declaring all baptisms invalid which do not use the valid form "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" exposes a persistent grave evil attacking the church. Valid matter, form and intention are necessary for all seven sacraments but especially for the most necessary of them all, baptism, since it is the gateway for the other six and for the life of grace.

When I was in the seminary, we had a liturgy workshop in between fall and spring semester. The liturgical nazi who instructed us proliferated the week with politically correct nomenclature and dialogue, such as "in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier." Feigning a sacrament is one of the worst kinds of sacrilege. When a priest, bishop or deacon knowingly and willingly suffers a sacrament to invalidity, he is in BIG TROUBLE. Purposely using invalid words of consecration or for baptism are as attrocious as using invalid matter, such as rice cakes and orange juice for Holy Mass.

It is tantamount to spiritual malpractice for an ordained minister to infect the lay faithful with invalid or illicit sacraments. Maybe if some of the good people took these miscreants to canonical court for their liturgical abuses we might see a decline.