Fetalvero: A matter of faith

By Noemi C. Fetalvero
Sun.Star
March 19, 2014

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/lifestyle/2014/03/19/fetalvero-matter-faith-333909

RELIGION and faith are two intertwined subjects that may be considered very personal to an individual. Although I am taking a personal stance on the matter, I am sure hundreds of parishioners are affected by a certain issue.

Since the Archdiocese of Cebu decided to give clergymen under its pastoral care a second chance (meaning those priests found to have broken their vows, given a different parish assignment instead of being suspended). The consideration, I believe, has been abused by some priests.

In Jan. 16, I went to see Archbishop of Cebu Jose Palma to report a priest assigned in the southern part of Cebu who, I believe, was living a double life. In some days of the week, the clergyman functions as a parish priest. However, from Mondays through Wednesdays he is a regular visitor of a residential house where he is being introduced to neighbors as a husband and a father of two children. The children are both adults now.

Palma said he will look into it, saying that the church follows a certain protocol with regards to matters like these.

Months have passed and Bishop Palma has not met with the Board of Consultors who will create the investigating body to make the inquiry vis-à-vis the report.

The Archdiocese of Cebu did a reshuffling of parish priests recently. I wonder if the move is one of the church’s hidden agenda to reassign erring members of St. Peter’s followers. The Catholic Church cannot blame me to suspect as there were several occasions in the past that this was practiced. In fact Bishop Palma himself told me of an incident when he had to reassign a priest to a far flung parish for having impregnated a woman who took care of the said priest while he was ill.

The priest who was the subject of my report has left his parish and is now residing in Bohol with his woman.

One of several reasons why there are so many Catholics switching religions is the fact that some of the clergymen under the mantle of the Roman Catholic have lifestyles that are either questionable or downright immoral.

The Archdiocese of Cebu should check on the lifestyles of clergymen under its pastoral care as some of them are amassing wealth despite their vow of poverty.