VATICAN CITY (CNS) Ginevra wiggled. Maria Magdalena thrust out her arms. Edoardo snuggled up against his mother. And Giulia, unflinching, kept her eyes wide open. The baptismal ceremony was like others that take place everywhere in the world, except that it was Pope Benedict XVI who poured water on the heads of 14 infants, and welcomed them into the church.
Presiding over the annual liturgy in the Sistine Chapel Jan. 10, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the pope underlined the importance of the sacrament.
"This is a great day for these children. With baptism, they become participants in the death and resurrection of Christ, and begin with him the joyful and exciting adventure of the disciple," he said in his homily.
He said the sacrament brings a particular responsibility for parents and godparents: to nourish the faith of the newly baptized with words and the witness of their lives. In this way, he said, the children will be able to "shine in our world, which often gropes in the shadows of doubt."
The infants, seven girls and seven boys, were all children of Vatican employees, and the Mass was marked by a family atmosphere. The siblings of the baptized carried the offertory gifts, and the cries of babies echoed off the frescoed walls and ceiling of the chapel throughout the liturgy.
