Fellow priest’s ‘ill’ joke for Duterte inappropriate, prelate says

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Business Forum held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan on September 6, 2018. ALFRED FRIAS/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — A Catholic prelate on Monday said the remarks of a fellow priest wishing ill upon President Rodrigo Duterte was an inappropriate joke.

Fr. Jerome Secillano, parish priest of the Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro Parish in Sampaloc, Manila, said the remarks of Father Noel Gatchalian do not reflect the view of the Catholic Church.

“It is not the whole sentiment of the whole [Catholic] Church because the Church’s mission is to pray for the sick to get well. The gospel yesterday is about the sick person who was healed by Jesus. So hindi pwedeng simbahan ay magdadasal para magkasakit ang isang tao (the Church should not pray for a person to get sick). That is not the mission of the Church,” Secillano said in a forum in Manila.

Secillano said it is Fr. Gatchalian’s superior, not the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), who can sanction him.

“On the part of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), it does not have constituency [over priests]. It has constituency over bishops who are heads of the dioceses,” he explained.

Gatchalian earlier offered prayers for the President to become ill during a mass outside the office of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV last week.

Trillanes is facing possible arrest after President Rodrigo Duterte, through Proclamation No. 572, declared as void ab initio the amnesty granted to him by former President Benigno Aquino III.