Diocese Suspends Nightclubbing Priest

Manila Standard Today
October 2, 2012

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/10/03/diocese-suspends-nightclubbing-priest/

A PARISH priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao was suspended after he was found to be fond of going to a nightclub, a diocesan spokesman said over the church-owned Radio Veritas.

Diocesan spokesman Rev. Aries Sison identified the priest as Bong Guerrero, parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the city’s Cubao district, who was suspended by Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco last Sept. 25.

Sison said the diocese was already imposing disciplinary sanctions on Guerrero even before the priest’s activities was revealed by the television news program XXX of the ABS-CBN network.

“The fist measure was to remove him as parish priest. Secondly, Bishop Ongtioco suspended his priestly functions. These two measures were done to avoid further harm, further scandal and to stop him from falling into greater sin,” Sison said in the radio interview.

Sison also extended the diocese’s apologies for the scandal and asked the faithful to pray for the wayward priest instead of condemning him.

“We priests are called to holiness in a very special way because of our vocation. So when there are priests who commit mistakes, I am imploring the faithful not to condemn him but to pray for him,” Sison said.

Earlier this year, the Vatican suspended another priest from the Archdiocese of Cebu over charges that he sexually abuse an altar boy when he was a priest in Los Angeles, California more than 20 years ago.

The Vatican said the abuse charges against Monsignor Cristobal Garcia is being investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and was suspended from ministry last June by the Archdiocese of Cebu where he fled after being expelled by the Order of Preachers.

The Dominicans expelled Garcia after a nun reported that an altar boy was found in his bed at a Los Angeles rectory and Garcia later fled to Cebu.

Last week, Garcia was linked to alleged ivory smuggling after the National Geographic magazine featured his collection of religious figurines carved from ivory.