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Some Catholics were chagrined by the embarrassing confrontation. Father Charles Curran, a noted moral theologian at the Catholic University of America, observed that "there is going to be more pluralism in Roman Catholicism on particular moral questions. I disagree with the position of abortion on demand, but I can't say that the teaching on abortion is a matter of faith and a reason to refuse baptism."
In any case, both at the Vatican and in Boston, church officials conceded that the baptism, though, "illicit," was a valid Christian baptism. But Monsignor Meehan felt that he had to get in a hard last word. "It seems clear," said Immaculate Conception's pastor, "that the child is not baptized into the ecclesiastical community of faith we call the Roman Catholic Church." That may be one reason why the Morreales, who plan to remain Catholic, are shopping for another parish in which to worship.
* An exception: if the child is in danger of death, any person—even a non-Catholic—may baptize.