A priest faces a church court after forcing a toddler’s head underwater in Russia

News24xx.com -  After forcing a toddler’s head to underwater for three times while she screamed, a priest named Ilia Semiletov faces a church court after his video was emerged.

The baptism happened in 2016 but a video of it has recently gone viral. In the footage, people can be heard laughing during the service and nuns with mops are seen arriving afterwards to dry the puddles.

But, now he has been suspended from his post with the Russian Orthodox Church over the violent baptism of the two-year-old girl. 

At that time, Semiletov allegedly hit her head during the baptism.

Although the unnamed girl’s parents did not register a complaint, her mother admitted the girl cried because she was scared of the priest.

And she added she was grateful to Semiletov for baptising her daughter. 

One of Semiletov’s parishioners at St George’s Convent in Yessentuki said the priest told her that children and newborn babies must be ‘broken’ because ‘Satan is sitting inside them’.

Archpriest Mikhail Samokhin, of the Pyatigorsk and Circassian diocese, said, "The priest acted too harshly. He has been suspended from officiating at services and he will he will be judged by the church court. Everything is fine with the girl. Her parents did not complain nor make any claims either against the priest or to the convent or the diocese."

 

 

 

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