Priest slaps crying baby during baptism

The video has shocked viewers online.
The video has shocked viewers online. Photo credit: YouTube/L'ACTU CHOC

Video of a baby getting slapped during a baptism has shocked viewers online, with many saying they'd have done the same to the priest.

The video was uploaded to the internet on Thursday (NZ time). It's not clear where it was shot, but the people in the video are speaking French.

"I'm going to put water on the forehead, and after I'll embrace the little man, because he will have become a little Christian,' the priest tells the parents.

But the baby won't stop crying, so the priest grabs his head and says, "Stop crying, calm down."

The anxious parents appear to want him to hand the baby back, but he grips tighter before slapping the baby on the cheek. Gasps from others in the church can be heard.

A man believed to be the boy's father tried to take the infant, but the priest pulls the baby's head towards his own, saying: "You have to calm down, you have to calm down."

Eventually the priest relents, the man telling him, "no no no". The baby cries the whole time.

"If he hit my child he loses his hand for sure," one viewer on YouTube said.

"If that was my kid would get slapped on the face the second he did that," said another, "but if that was my kid he would not be getting baptized. I don't need 'magical' water with fecal bacteria to be sprayed on my child. "

The clip has been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube, and reportedly has been shared on other sites.

Newshub.