A Catholic priest has resigned after a church investigation found he performed invalid baptisms throughout most of his more than 20-year career, according to Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix.Father Andres Arango, who performed thousands of baptisms, would say, "We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." But Olmsted explained the words "We baptize" should have been "I baptize" instead."The issue with using 'We' is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes," Olmsted wrote in a message to parishioners posted last month.The error also means that because baptism is the first of the sacraments, some people will need to repeat other sacraments, according to the diocese webpage for frequently asked questions. CNN has reached out to the diocese for comment on other sacraments.Arango resigned as pastor of the St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix as of Feb. 1."It saddens me to learn that I have performed invalid baptisms throughout my ministry as a priest by regularly using an incorrect formula. I deeply regret my error and how this has affected numerous people in your parish and elsewhere," Arango wrote in his own message on the site.Olmsted said the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2020 affirmed that when a baptism is conferred with the formula "We baptize ..." it is invalid and people need to be baptized again.The diocese has set up a website for anyone who believes they had an invalid baptism. The diocese said baptisms Arango conducted after June 17, 2021, are presumed valid.According to Katie Burke, a spokesperson for the diocese, some new baptisms have already taken place.Arango began his career in Brazil in 1995. He will continue to be a priest and will dedicate his energy and time to help those who had invalid baptisms.Olmsted said he did not believe Andres intended to harm any of the parishioners."I too am sincerely sorry that this error has resulted in disruption to the sacramental lives of a number of the faithful. This is why I pledge to take every step necessary to remedy the situation for everyone impacted," Olmsted said.According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are seven sacraments in the Catholic church: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, reconciliation, anointing the sick, marriage and holy orders."Through the Sacraments, God shares his holiness with us so that we, in turn, can make the world holier," the conference says on its website.

For Ruth Sintilus, finally, some relief came amid sadness and worry after the earthquake hit Haiti. The Central Florida woman was able to get in touch with family after days of uncertainty. "They told me they got a lot of losses, but thank God they're still alive," Sintilus said. "My grandmother's house has collapsed. She was in there and she got hurt."Osma Pierre, who also lives in Central Florida, remembers vividly the earthquake that hit Haiti more than a decade ago when he lived there. He's heartbroken seeing similar devastation again, knowing people he loves are hurting."I have some of my family hurt by this earthquake," Pierre said. "Even if someone is not part of my nation or people, we are all human beings. We are all created by God, yes, we are all concerned and hurt."Sintilus and Pierre both attend the Triumphant Baptist Church in Orlando where Oreste Saint Filus is the pastor. "Brothers and sisters, when somebody's crying, we're crying too," Saint Filus said. As the pastor consoles other members as well who are grieving people they lost or facing uncertainty still, he's also trying to find ways to be helpful for the people in Haiti. "All the Haitian pastors in the community we are all doing the same thing. We need some help to help those that are suffering right there in Haiti," he said.The pastor says he will work to make some kind of action plan in the coming days to send aid to Haiti.

ORLANDO, Fla. —

For Ruth Sintilus, finally, some relief came amid sadness and worry after the earthquake hit Haiti.

The Central Florida woman was able to get in touch with family after days of uncertainty.

"They told me they got a lot of losses, but thank God they're still alive," Sintilus said. "My grandmother's house has collapsed. She was in there and she got hurt."

Osma Pierre, who also lives in Central Florida, remembers vividly the earthquake that hit Haiti more than a decade ago when he lived there.

He's heartbroken seeing similar devastation again, knowing people he loves are hurting.

Joseph Odelyn

"I have some of my family hurt by this earthquake," Pierre said. "Even if someone is not part of my nation or people, we are all human beings. We are all created by God, yes, we are all concerned and hurt."

Sintilus and Pierre both attend the Triumphant Baptist Church in Orlando where Oreste Saint Filus is the pastor.

"Brothers and sisters, when somebody's crying, we're crying too," Saint Filus said.

As the pastor consoles other members as well who are grieving people they lost or facing uncertainty still, he's also trying to find ways to be helpful for the people in Haiti.

"All the Haitian pastors in the community we are all doing the same thing. We need some help to help those that are suffering right there in Haiti," he said.

The pastor says he will work to make some kind of action plan in the coming days to send aid to Haiti.

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Kelli Rearden spent her summers in college working in orphanages in Peru. That’s what drew her to become a social worker in the adoption profession. And it opened her heart to want to adopt internationally herself.

Kelli Rearden, Adoptive mom: “I wouldn’t marry Randall until he agreed that he would adopt with me one day.”

Early in their marriage, she’d browse the international “Waiting Children” site online, and when a picture popped up of a little girl in Vietnam, she couldn’t get the image out of her mind.

Kelli: “I just thought she was adorable, and I was just drawn to her.”

Randall Rearden, Adoptive dad and Baptist pastor: “Every time you looked at that picture, or we would get new pictures, you would just, you just couldn’t put it down.”

Other adoptive families had already expressed interest in the little girl, but the Reardens kept checking back.

Kelli: “I know it sounds crazy, like, how can you love a picture when you don’t know this child, but we really did, and I just knew.”

What they didn’t know were what challenges, exactly, they would be taking on. They saw the medical files for the tiny toddler Vietnamese orphanage nannies called Mai-Mai. They knew she was blind in one eye and had a heart murmur, that she was premature – born at 26 weeks – and that something wasn’t quite right with her brain.

Randall: “It was kind of scary to read that file for the first time, ’cause it was a Vietnamese medical report. It was a coin flip to, you know, whether these things were actually true or not.”

They had already committed to adopting this child. But they wanted expert advice on how to care for her once she got home. So, they sought out the International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children’s, where they met Dr. Mary Allen Staat, who founded the center and has three internationally adopted children herself.

Kelli: “The first thing that she told me was: ‘She’s an amazing little girl.’ And I’ll never forget that. We had other doctors that just told us, you know, basically a doomsday story that was discouraging, and she saw her first, and she was very realistic and helpful and explained things, but she saw her for a person first, and so, that was very encouraging to us.”

Mary Allen Staat, MD, MPH, Director, International Adoption Center: “It’s so personal to me. You know, this is a great job for anyone to have as far as, you know, the joy that you get in helping families who are internationally adopting. But, for me, it’s incredibly personal. I really want to make sure all our families feel very supported from the very beginning until their kids are adults. My kids are now adults, and adoption is always going to be a part of their lives. And I want to make sure that we have services there for the families throughout their children’ lives.”

As it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, the International Adoption Center has seen more than 3,000 children over the years and helped countless more families pre-adoptively.

Kelli: “I can’t even imagine if we had had– with all we had going on – if we had had to go find specialists on our own and make appointments and figure out all the things that Dr. Staat just referred us and showed us what to do and made all those appointments. It was kind of like a one-stop shop.”

Randall: “They treated our daughter, but they helped us so much.”

Dr. Staat: “It’s probably the most fun thing I get to do is to help families through the process of international adoption. We are there to help the family once they’ve decided to internationally adopt and to help them to feel comfortable with what conditions their child has.”

Ever since the Reardens came home with the daughter they call Gracie they’ve reached milestones they never expected. Gracie is spunky. She loves to play and jump. She can sign a little and is starting to say words.

She goes to kindergarten, and the family can’t wait to see what she does next.

Kelli: “When we were praying about her file, my mom, I called my mom to talk about it because we’re very close, and I knew that I would need her support if we adopted a child with special needs. So a few days went by, and my mom went to church on Sunday, and the pastor um, was saying, you know, some people can’t see that the Gospel is a masterpiece, just like this Picasso painting, and he put up a Picasso painting of this dark-headed little girl that her eyes, you know, Picasso paintings are crazy, but her eyes were like all over, and her nose was like moved over, and, you know, it looked a lot like Gracie. The pastor said, ‘She’s a masterpiece.’ And so, that’s the calling I always go back to, you know, that God, he made her exactly who she’s supposed to be. She’s perfect the way she is. And I have zero doubt that she’s supposed to be in our family.”

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