The Catholic Church baptism crisis is manufactured. Faith is bigger than grammar. Amen.

From the beginning of his priesthood in 1995, the Rev. Andres Arango performed the sacred ritual of baptism.

Or so he believed.

For a quarter-century, Father Arango baptized thousands of children and adults in Catholic churches using this phrasing: “We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

It’s his use of the word “we” that is at the heart of the church’s latest crisis of its own making.

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has declared that every one of Rev. Arango’s baptisms – through June 17, 2021 – is now null and void because he used the word “we” instead of “I.” Father Arango has resigned.

I say this as a person of faith: My God, the harm we inflict in service to a religion.

Wielding God as a weapon

My first impulse was to make light of this news. I imagined Jesus the grammarian spending his days editing the texts of religious leaders who dare speak for him. As a practicing Christian – emphasis on practicing – this is a gratifying image as I think of all those right-wing extremists wielding God as a weapon. Every time they use their words to corrupt my faith steeped in teachings of love and inclusion, there’s Jesus at the keyboard: “Delete, delete, delete.”

So much for that.

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This is where I ask those who delight in mocking all religious beliefs to try, just this once, to dial back the language of superiority. For most of us, a belief in God seldom has anything to do with unicorns and bearded cloud hoppers. You are free to think God does not exist, but let’s acknowledge that yours is also a belief. We’re all running on a faith.

Someone in Father Arango’s parish, perhaps several there, decided to rat on him. In an attempt to explain this latest infliction of harm on an unsuspecting flock, the Phoenix diocese published an online Q&A.

An excerpt: “It is not the community that baptizes a person and incorporates them into the Church of Christ; rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all sacraments; therefore, it is Christ who baptizes. The Baptismal Formula (the words used in the Rite) has always been guarded for this reason: so it is clear that we receive our baptism through Jesus and not the community.

“If you were baptized using the wrong words, that means your baptism is invalid, and you are not baptized. You will need to be baptized.”

Far down the list, Question #18: “Can I (or my child) continue to receive Communion?”

The diocese’s answer: “Only the baptized may receive the Eucharist.” Added, in boldface: “Please do not take Communion until you have been validly baptized.”

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For many Catholics, this is indeed a crisis, and it’s a manufactured one. As the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, wrote for the Religion News Service, “The real problem here is that the Vatican is treating the traditional words of baptism like a computer password. Without it, you cannot get into the church.”

This arrives on the heels of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI publicly asking for forgiveness for any “grievous” handling of clergy sex abuse cases while denying any personal wrongdoing or responsibility during his time as archbishop of Munich, Germany. His non-apology appeared only after the recent release of an independent audit of sexual abuse cases from 1945 to 2019.

There is no ignoring the church’s ongoing legacy of sexual abuse by its clergy. Many of these predators were allowed to continue performing baptisms in one parish after another long after church authorities knew about their criminal behavior that targeted mostly children. We do not have to be Catholic to care about the harm it inflicts on those who are.

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In 2020, ProPublica published a searchable database of more than 5,800 names of Catholic clergy members credibly accused of sexual abuse. It is a compilation of 178 lists released by U.S. dioceses and religious orders.

As ProPublica reported, “This represents the first comprehensive picture of the information released publicly by bishops around the country. Some names appear multiple times. In many cases, that accounts for priests who were accused in more than one location. In other instances, dioceses have acknowledged when priests who served in their jurisdiction have been reported for abuse elsewhere.”

Of crucial importance, ProPublica adds: “It’s impossible to know how many accused clergy members dioceses have opted not to put on their lists.”

And yet here we are, debating “I” versus “we.”

Look beyond words, see the message

In response to this news, several readers have directed me to a blog post by Rabbi Mike Harvey, in which he shares the fable of a poor, uneducated boy who attended synagogue with his father on Shabbat. The child could not read, but his mother had taught him the Hebrew alphabet. Moved by the beautiful service of chanted prayers, he joined in by reciting the alphabet, one letter at a time.

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His father cautioned him to stop, but soon enough he was moved again to recite the letters, even louder. As Rabbi Harvey tells it, after catching the attention of everyone, the child prayed aloud:

“Ruler of the Universe, I know I am only a child. I want so much to sing the beautiful prayers to you, but I don’t know them. Please, dear God, take these letters of the alphabet and rearrange them to form the words that mean what I want to say to you, what is in my heart!”

Tears formed in the eyes of the father, the rabbi and the congregation. Together, they joined him. “Aleph, bet, gimmel, daled, hey, vav ...”

Amen, and amen.

Connie Schultz is a columnist for USA TODAY. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner whose novel, "The Daughters of Erietown," is a New York Times bestseller. Reach her at CSchultz@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @ConnieSchultz

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Catholic priest baptism crisis of words pales next to sex abuse cases