catholicherald.co.uk -- The recent baptism of a child raised by a same-sex couple has caused a controversy in Colombia, after a parish pastor issued a baptismal certificate indicating that the child has two mothers. Manuela and Luisa Fernanda Gómez, who are civilly married under Colombian law, wanted to have their 17-month-old son Matías baptized in the city of Medellin. According to local media reports, the couple went to several parishes where they were told that their son could be baptized, but that a baptismal certificate would list only the same of his biological mother, and not that of her partner, since the Church does not recognize the marriage of persons of the same sex.

Manuela Gomez told reporters that eventually, they found a parish priest willing to perform the baptism and record them both as mothers on the baptismal registry, if the Archdiocese of Medellin would permit him. “He wrote to the (diocesan) curia, investigated, and he told us that he could (perform the baptism), in fact, because according to canon law, the sacrament must be documented with the same information that appears on the civil registry of the minor’s birth, which in this case had two lines: ‘Mother one’ and ‘Mother two,’” Manuela told the local media. The baptism was performed on July 13. In a statement issued on July 23, the Archdiocese of Medellin said that for several years “the sacrament of baptism has been administered to children of homosexual couples.” The statement said that through baptism, “the Church gives the grace of Christian life to the children.” Baptism in such cases is “not a recognition of the couples themselves,” the archdiocese added. The archdiocese also said that “for the registration of the baptism and the issuance of the certificate of the latter, the Church assumes the information that appears on the civil documents which must be presented before the administration of the sacrament, taking into account that on the certificate the names of those that are recorded on the civil registry as parents, in the same order in which they are written on that registry.”

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