Romania’s Orthodox Church has come under fire for its baptismal ritual after the baby’s death

“Given the tragic situations in which infants died after immersion in the baptismal font, the Church urgently needs to regulate this practice!” the petition reads.

The six-week-old baby went into cardiac arrest on Sunday after being baptized three times in a baptismal font during his baptism in a church in Suceava, in northeastern Romania, reported Antena 3, a CNN affiliate.

According to Antena 3, the police have opened a culpable murder investigation.

“It is without a doubt a tragic case, one that will have to be investigated. Let’s not imagine that a child could be put in water without covering his nose, mouth and ears,” said Vasile Bănescu, spokesman for the Romanian Patriarchate. . , Antena 3 told Monday.

“There is a technique that an experienced priest always uses. For example, a baptism is celebrated with the greatest care,” adds Bănescu.

Vladimir Dumitru, who started the online petition, told CNN that he did not want to abolish the ritual of Orthodox baptism “but to change that sometimes brutal practice that carries the risk of drowning, especially in the case of children with health problems.”

“The petition is not against the institution of the Church or the priests, but has a constructive intent,” he told CNN.

With this petition, we want the practice of baptism to be symbolic by sprinkling the baby on the head and not three times its complete immersion, and for this non-invasive practice to be mandatory in all Orthodox churches in Romania and in the Diaspora. ‘he said in an email.

CNN has contacted the Romanian Orthodox Church and Suceava police for comment.