Judge Bork, baptized at 76

U.S. News & World Report ^ | 7/22/03 | Paul Bedard With David LaGesse

[nickcarraway]

It may be a little late to start for most, but Robert Bork, the former Supreme Court nominee who has written books decrying the decline of Western culture, has just been baptized. Rev. C. John McCloskey, who represents the conservative and activist Opus Dei arm of the Roman Catholic Church and oversaw the baptism, said, "I can confirm that he was received in the Catholic Church." Bork, a scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was raised a Protestant and had called himself a "generic Protestant." He was known more for his conservative legal views, which some Democrats used to shoot down his court nomination during the Reagan administration.

In a brief interview, he said that years of "conversations and reading" led him to baptism at McCloskey's small Catholic Information Center chapel on K Street near the White House. "There's more to talk about than you can put in a brief story." He called himself a regular Catholic who attends Sunday mass, not an Opus Dei member.

He said talks with and recommendations from the priest, as well as attending church with his wife, Mary Ellen Bork, a former nun, helped pave the way to the ceremony.

Bork's sponsors were Kate O'Beirne, a conservative media star, and John O'Sullivan, head of UPI.

Lots of other prominent Catholics were there, such as columnist and speechwriter Peggy Noonan, herself a convert.

McCloskey has made several other high-level conversions of conservatives, bringing into the Catholic Church conservative columnist Robert Novak and Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.

The best part of getting baptized at 76, said Bork: "If you get baptized at my age, all of your sins are forgiven. And that's very helpful."

According to Archdiocese of Washington Communications Director Susan Gibbs, Msgr. William Awalt, the longtime pastor of the Borks, baptized the judge, confirmed him and gave him First Communion. Father McCloskey celebrated the Mass, along with Msgr. Peter Vaghi, pastor of St. Patrick's.

[nickcarraway]

Father McCloskey also converted Larry Kudlow.

[wideawake]

Welcome home, Judge Bork.

[Chewbacca]

Just because you are baptised doesn't mean your sins are forgiven.

Did he ask Jesus into his heart to be his personal Lord and saviour and forgive him of his sins?

[Thorondir]

What an inane post. An adult who goes to be baptized into the body of Christ must certainly be asking Jesus into his heart. Your post is nothing more than a standard prepared anti-Catholic attack based on heretical wack-job theology. Just cut it out. Nobody needs your anti-Catholic baiting.

[Thorondir]

What an inane post. An adult who goes to be baptized into the body of Christ must certainly be asking Jesus into his heart. Your post is nothing more than a standard prepared anti-Catholic attack based on heretical wack-job theology. Just cut it out. Nobody needs your anti-Catholic baiting.

[onyx]

Good news.

[onyx]

Thanks for posting this welcome news. I've bookmarked this thread.

[AD from SpringBay]

Just because you are baptised doesn't mean your sins are forgiven.

And just because you are sprinkled doesn't mean you are baptised.

[old-ager]

Just because you are baptised doesn't mean your sins are forgiven. Did he ask Jesus into his heart to be his personal Lord and saviour and forgive him of his sins?

Hmmm. Sounds like he "did" something better: "believed and was baptized".
You sound a bit like a modern-day Judaizer. You seem to want to add burdens and turn salvation into a work. If Bork has no faith, he is not saved. But he sounds like a believer to me, at this point. "Baptism now saves you".

[DLfromthedesert]

I heard Laura Ingraham say that she recently was baptized into the Catholic Church.

Does anyone know if she was also brought into the church by Father McCloskey?

[sinkspur]

Wonder what this place would've been like during the OJ trial?

The graphics would have been great. Ever see the "Dancing Itos"? I can't recall where I saw that, but it's hilarious.

[Fred Mertz]

Weren't Freeh and Hanssen (sp) both members of the Opus Dei arm of the Roman Catholic Church?

[sinkspur]

Sorry about that. Posted to the wrong thread.

This is great news about Bork.

[Cicero]

Two points. One is that Catholics consider baptism to be a sacrament that wipes away the effects of original and actual sins committed up to that point. If you read Augustine's "Confessions" you will note that his parents did not baptize him as a child because they wanted to save it until later, after he had committed his adolescent sins. Not a normal Catholic idea, but based on Catholic the theology of baptism.

Second, if Bork was originally baptized as a Protestant, then that earlier baptism was probably valid. It depends what he means by "generic Protestant." Catholics believe that anyone can administer the sacrament of baptism--and should, in an emergency. Two things are necessary for the sacrament, matter and words. The matter is water. The words are: "I baptize you [name] in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Most Protestant denominations use water and these words, although they may dispute about the need for adult conversion or total immersion.

So, I suspect that this was probably a conditional baptism, meaning that Bork was baptized IF he was not validly baptized as a baby, just to make sure.

[sinkspur]

Although Bork is a judge, and Ito is (or was) a judge, so I guess there is a tenuous connection.

[nickcarraway]

Huh? I don't know the relevance, but the ``dancing Itos'' were from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

[wideawake]

Being a "generic" Protestant, Bork may have belonged to a group which did not believe in baptizing children, preferring baptizands to wait until they had an experience of being born-again.

Perhaps Bork did not have that experience until recently.

[Wallace T.]

Was Robert Bork baptized into his family's Protestant denomination? If so, does the Catholic Church not recognize the legitimacy of his prior baptism? If the Catholic Church does not recognize the prior baptiam, is the non-recognition due to the absence of what Rome regards as legitimate and continuous apostolic succession in the Protestant churches (Episcopals included)? Since all churches that can legitimately call themselves Protestant are necessarily Trinitarian, it would appear the language of administration would be acceptable per se. (I suppose an Eastern Orthodox baptism would be regarded as a legitimate sacrament.)

[BaBaStooey]

bump for all my Catholic Freeper homies

[sinkspur]

I posted a response to the wrong thread, and I was lamely trying to recover.