Pope offers prayers for babies baptized in the past year

Published: 2005-01-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although for the second year in a row Pope John Paul II did not baptize any infants on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, he did offer special prayers for the world's newest, smallest Catholics. "My thoughts go to all the children who were baptized during the course of the past year," the pope told thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square Jan. 9 for the recitation of the Angelus prayer. "I embrace them and bless them," he said. "I also bless the godfathers and godmothers and, especially, the parents of the newly baptized, asking all of them to cultivate, with their words and their example, the seeds of divine life sown by the sacrament of baptism," the pope said. The pope told the crowd that just as Jesus' public ministry began with his baptism in the Jordan River, the mission of each Christian begins with his or her baptism.

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