Irish Neo-Church Defends Ritual While Obscuring Sacramental Reality
The Catholic News Agency portal (January 21, 2026) reports on former Irish president Mary McAleese’s accusation that infant baptism violates children’s rights, presenting responses from conciliar clergy who defend the practice while omitting its supernatural purpose. Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan and Fr. Owen Gorman employ naturalistic arguments about parental choice and “good start in life,” while convert Mahon McCann correctly identifies the incompatibility of human rights frameworks with sacramental theology yet remains entrenched in neo-church structures. The article culminates in the blasphemous spectacle of antipope Leo XIV administering invalid baptisms in the Sistine Chapel.