Cardinal issues gag order to church-officials

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has prohibited all church officials and priests from giving any public statement on any Church-related issues.

Cebu Archdiocese Media Liaison Officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay told reporters yesterday that they are no longer allowed to issue statements on matters hounding the Church unless a committee investigation is finished.

Earlier, Vidal ordered Santander town parish priest Fr. Jovencio Rabusa to refrain from issuing comments regarding the allegations made against him by some altar boys. Vidal also asked Rabusa not to return to his duty in the southern town.

The cardinal's gag order came on the same day former members of the Parish Pastoral Council took turns narrating the abuses the priest allegedly committed, aside from the altar boys' accusations that he hit and molested them.

At least 12 former members of the Santander parish's core group called for a press conference yesterday in barangay Bunlan.

Eugenia Culanag, 51, disclosed that over 74 parishioners have either changed religion or stopped hearing Mass because of Rabusa's alleged abuses.

At least 17 altar boys have also aired grievances against Rabusa, who has been the priest of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish for nearly six years.

The Cebu archdiocese is yet to form a committee that would investigate the allegations against Rabusa.

Another issue that is hounding the Church is the controversy engulfing Msgr. Constantino Diotay and Fr. Domingo Tapic of the Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Church in Pardo.

Over 1,000 parishioners earlier held a prayer rally to seek for the ouster of the two priests. One complaint said the priests have been dealing with an "excessive" price for the five-year use of a cemetery space.

The protesters, who came from Poblacion Pardo and neighboring barangays of Cogon Pardo, Kinasang-an and Inayawan, have asked the priests where the money of the project has been going.

They also complained against the fees imposed on the parishioners for the use of the parking spaces inside the church compound, and on the children attending a parish foundation school. - Jasmin R. Uy/LPM