Manila to Go after Tipsy Priests at the Wheel

By Barbara Mae Dacanay
Gulf News
June 7, 2013

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/manila-to-go-after-tipsy-priests-at-the-wheel-1.1193957

Manila: Catholic priests will be treated like ordinary citizens and the amount of wine they serve during Sunday Mass won’t count as an alibi when they are caught in drink driving cases, a local paper reported.

“It’s practically impossible that a priest will get drunk because of celebrating Mass with mompo [wine used as sacrament],” retired archbishop Oscar Cruz told the Bulletin.

“The mompo that we use during Mass every Sunday is not made of pure grape juice. Its alcohol content is only 12 per cent. The amount of wine that a priest pours into the chalice is just about two or three tablespoons. And water is added to it,” Cruz said.

If Catholic priests are caught in drink driving cases on Sundays, it would not be due to mompo given its low alcohol content, Cruz said. He, however, said: “It’s only during Sundays that priests celebrate three Masses, ordinarily they serve just one mass a day.”