Was this Russian Priest possessed by the Devil?

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The incident took place over the weekend at a small church in the city of Gatchina, around 40km from St. Petersburg. A video of the ceremony shows the priest taking the one-year-old baby and carrying it to the small baptismal font. According to the Russian Orthodox tradition, a child has to be dipped three times in holy water in order to be baptized.

A Russian Orthodox priest sparked outrage on social media after a mother claimed he bruised and nearly drowned her toddler during an intense ‘exorcism-like’ baptism ceremony.

Some shocked viewers said the ceremony resembled an exorcism rather than a normal baptism. “The priest was possessed by the devil,” one person wrote, while other commenters called the priest “insane” and described his actions as “abuse.”

Priest Vasily Necheporenko, was suspended for a year following the disturbing infant baptism ceremony, which ended with the child’s family filing a police report.

Senior hierarchs condemned the priest as well. Priestmonk Gennadius, who leads the parish work department at the Moscow Patriarchy’s office, called his actions “madness” and said that such “inadequate” service during ceremonies hurts the church’s mission.

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