TO THE EDITOR:
I’m outraged by the letter from Rev. Albert B. Marcello in the March 17 issue about the necessity of baptism and the difference between the pronouns “I” and “we” making a baptism invalid through an innocent error. This is a time of decreasing attendance in church and an increasing departure from the faith. The demographic of the truly faithful is clearly over 50 in Rhode Island. We should be doing everything to encourage people in the true spirit of Christ which, as far as I know, is tolerance and forgiveness. Yet Reverend Marcello wants to enforce what I can only perceive as a bureaucratic rule to validate a theological point which he holds dear, completely divorced from the reality in the pews.
The “truth of Jesus Christ” to which he refers is one of understanding and inclusion, not complexity and exclusion. If you’re wondering why church attendance and religious observances are falling, just consider this writer’s coldness to his brothers and sisters involved in this situation.
Why not embrace the faithful instead of the “rules” if the result is salutary? God save us all from the bureaucrats.
Alan Weiss, Ph.D., East Greenwich
