If you haven’t heard, a Quezon City court has ordered the arrest of a priest, Fr. Winston Cabading, over a complaint filed against him by a former associate justice and Commission on Elections (Comelec) official, Harriet Demetriou, due to “offense against religious feelings”.
The allegation was that Fr. Cabading maligned the Mediatrix of All Grace and her devotees. In her complaint, Demetriou, a Catholic devotee of the “Mediatrix,” accused Cabading of being an extreme critic of Mary; and due to that, she became a victim of Cabading’s alleged “blashphemous indulgence” and is thus entitled to a cause of action for a criminal suit before the court.
The former magistrate said that the “Mediatrix of All Grace is a Marian apparition that took place in the Carmelite Monastery of Lipa, Batangas sometime in 1948.”
However, some time in 2016, it is to be reminded that the Vatican issued a decree stating that the supposed apparitions in Lipa City had no supernatural origin. According to the decree, Pope Pius XII already decided in 1951 that the supposed apparitions of the Virgin Mary were not of supernatural origin. Thus, as what Father Cabading has been preaching.
However, Demetriou insists that the 1951 decree negating the authenticity of the apparition is “nowhere to be found” in the Vatican archives.
In all honesty, after having heard the said news, this paper was baffled, and laughed due to it being somewhat ironic. We mean, a priest being sued for “offending religious feelings”? How ironic is that?
What we find very disturbing in this case, however, is that as far as we are concerned, it is a constitutional right for people to have freedom of religion; with it comes the right to preach and do what the church practice and believe (Provided, its purpose is not contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy). Hence, no matter how bizarre one’s belief is, as long as it does not go against the aforecited contradiction of law, morals, good customs and what not, such religious “practice” does not violate the law, or not illegal.
Now, with that being said, that certain provision grants the same guarantee that “religions” have the right to preach on church dogma, morals and discipline, no matter how peculiar, as long as it does not violate the abovestated contradiction, etc. Thus, when a priest merely repeats or explains the pronouncements of Church authorities on the highest levels, he cannot be offending religious feelings, because that’s what have been guaranteed, and that’s supposed to be what the followers of the said religion, believe, and if not, then he or she is free to leave, as he or she pleases. If one wishes to believe, act and worship as one pleases, that is fine but neither can one compel the Catholic church and its ministers to act and speak as one pleases. You cannot be a part of that said religion, and do it on your terms, it’s just absurd. (AJDB)
