Warning: readers may find some of the following content disturbing. 

A Russian Orthodox priest has been suspended from performing any more services because he violently baptized a child. Fotiy Necheporenko has caused serious injury and trauma to a young believer, and his superiors are punishing him despite his denial of any wrongdoing. The child’s parents are horrified that a priest could be so reckless with his actions and unapologetic about the consequences.

Baptisms usually involve the submersion of a baby or toddler in water. Depending on the sect of Christianity, the extent to which someone is dunked in water will vary. Some require a full body submersion, and others require just pouring water over the forehead. The ceremony is solemn and sacred, and it shouldn’t involve the injury of a child. Welcoming a new member to the church doesn’t need to involve trauma and bruising.

Anastasia Alexeeva brought her one-year-old child to be baptized, and she didn’t expect the solemn ceremony to turn into a nightmare. In the video, the priest can be seen forcefully submerging the boy in a font. The whole time, the child was screaming in terror. Alexeeva tried to intervene and take the child from the priest, but he refused to stop the ceremony. In her panic, her headscarf almost caught fire from a candle as she rushed forward towards the font.

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The baby was able to comprehend that the priest was someone big and potentially dangerous, and the font was not deep enough to accommodate him, so he began to scream for his mother. After the ceremony, the frightened child had bruises on his neck and shoulder and scratches all over his body. Alexeeva told the press that he’s now afraid of everything, and the experience has traumatized him.

The priest defended himself by saying he did nothing wrong. He claims that he has been baptizing children this way for the past 26 years. He blamed the mother’s emotions for being too high for escalating the situation unnecessarily. He claims that the baby did not swallow any water and didn’t hit the walls of the font, so he should be fine. Church authorities have intervened and banned him from conducting services for a year. He has also been summoned to explain himself to his superiors.