From Clerical Whispers comes an article on a recent Vatican ruling on Baptism. The long and ther short of it is that you can't change the words of Christ just because you think they might be politically incorrect:
A baptism administered "in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier" is not a baptism at all, said the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.The congregation's statement was published Feb. 29 as a brief response to questions regarding the validity of baptisms using that formula.
Asked whether a baptism performed with that formula -- or a similar one referring to the "Creator, Liberator and Sustainer" -- would be valid, the congregation answered "Negative."
Asked whether people who were initiated with a rite using these formulas would now need to be baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," the congregation answered "Affirmative."
The congregation said Pope Benedict XVI "approved these responses" and ordered their publication.
If either formula -- recently initiated in North America to avoid referring to the Trinity with masculine names -- was used, the person is not yet formally a Christian and any subsequent sacraments the person received also are invalid, said Cardinal Urbano Navarrete in a commentary commissioned by the doctrinal congregation.
"Persons who were baptized or will be baptized in the future with the formulas in question in reality are not baptized," the cardinal wrote. If they are now adults and want to be baptized, they must receive the instruction prescribed for all preparing for baptism and they should receive baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist during the same Mass, he said.
I cannot imagine anyone thinking they have the authority to alter the formula for baptism given by Christ himself on the grounds that the words are too gender-specific in referring to the Trinity. This bespeaks a shocking degree of hubris in the churches that have allowed this.