The video has been circulating online
A video of a French-speaking priest slapping a distressed baby during a baptismal service has garnered attention online in recent days.
The clip shows the baby being held in a woman's arms as she stood beside another woman and man beside a baptismal font in a church.
It goes on to show the priest, clearly annoyed by the baby's crying, grab the child's head on several occasions before eventually slapping the child in an attempt to calm it down.
While doing this, the priest uttered the words "Calm down", to the dismay of the child's family. The family remained quiet for a few moments after the incident, but then the baby is grabbed out of the priest’s arms by the child's father.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNRz_neEJ8
Clip via HydrOxy maztaz
The recording of the incident, which was uploaded on Wednesday, has since gone viral. Dozens of comments have been left below the original video expressing dismay at the priest's actions.
It is not yet clear where exactly the clip was captured, however, the news was first reported on a local news
website of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the priest in the video is speaking French, so it's believed to hail from the French territories in the Caribbean Sea.
