Priest eyeing Masbate capitol run must first be freed from clergy role

A priest running for the gubernatorial post in Masbate in the 2013 elections will have to choose between priesthood and politics as he cannot have both, Catholic bishops said Tuesday.

 

Canon Law expert and Tagbilaran (Bohol) Bishop Leonardo Medroso said Fr. Leo Casas risks losing his clerical ministry or be dispensed from the priesthood if he insists on entering politics.

 

"The priest is suspended from priesthood if he insists on running for public office," Medroso said in an article posted late Tuesday on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site.

 

A suspended priest can no longer celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or administer other sacraments, the CBCP said.

 

Medroso, who chairs the CBCP's Episcopal Commission on Canon Law, also stressed the first principle in Canon Law "is that a priest should never run for public office.”

 

Casas, 37, is reportedly running for governor of Masbate under the ruling Liberal Party. He is offering himself as an alternative.

 

Another priest who ran for a gubernatorial post is Ed Panlilio in Pampanga province. 

 

Panlilio went on leave from the clergy when he first ran and won in 2007. He left the priesthood after losing in his reelection bid in the 2010 elections.

 

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/191171/news/regions/panlilio-leaving-ministry-after-defeat-prelate

 

Overseas, in Paraguay, a former Roman Catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo served as president of Paraguay but was ousted in June 2012 through impeachment proceedings in that South American country's Senate.

 

Casas background

 

Casas had served as director of the Masbate diocese's Social Action Center for seven years now, and has led the local church’s various advocacies.

 

The priest has co-chaired the Bicol Regional Development Council since 2010 and is a member of the Masbate Provincial Peace and Order Council.

 

Also, he also holds a key position in the Protected Area Management Board of the Tugbo Watershed Reserve in Masbate and Naga City-based Coalition for Bicol Development.

 

Meanwhile, retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said that if Casas is really determined to run for public office, he should leave or voluntarily seek a dispensation from his priestly duties.

 

“He should get out of the priesthood and seek dispensation from his clerical obligation,” said Cruz, head of the CBCP’s dispensation desk.

 

Cruz said no priest may accept an office that includes the exercise of civil power as that is "clerically and categorically forbidden by the Church law."

 

“That is the version of the separation of the Church and State,” he said. — ELR, GMA News