A 6-week-old boy in a village in Moldova drowned last week while being baptized by a substitute priest, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

The newspaper says Father Valentine Tsaralunge, a priest from another village, stepped in when the local priest in Mihaileny could not attend the baptism of Laurentiu Gaydeu last week.

"He dipped the baby in the water without even covering the baby's mouth with his hand to prevent him from drowning," Dmitry Gaydeu, the boy's father, tells the newspaper. "He put his hand on his stomach and dipped him in the water three times."

The newspaper says the boy's godparents tried to intervene when the boy didn't seem well, but the priest insisted that it was not his first baptism and that he knew what he was doing.

Larentiu was soon rushed to the hospital where, according to the father, the doctor said that he had died of "asphyxia from drowning."

Police tell the newspaper that Father Valentine, who proclaimed his innocence, could face up to three years in prison if convicted of "reckless imprudence."

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)