{"id":162609,"date":"2018-05-04T22:52:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T02:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=162609"},"modified":"2018-05-05T06:21:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T10:21:13","slug":"aussie-nun-asks-govt-to-junk-case-for-lack-of-merit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/05\/04\/aussie-nun-asks-govt-to-junk-case-for-lack-of-merit\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie nun asks gov’t to junk case for lack of merit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox has asked the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to dismiss the case against her for lack of merit. (Photo<\/a> by Roy Lagarde\/CBCP News<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox has asked the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to dismiss the case against her for lack of merit.<\/p>\n

In a 26-page counter-affidavit filed on Friday, the Catholic nun reiterated that she did not violate the conditions of her missionary visa and denied joining anti-government rallies as alleged by BI Intelligence Officer Melody Penelope Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say that there is absolutely no factual and legal basis for the claims that I openly and actively participated in political or partisan activity or that I violated the conditions or limitations under which the missionary visa was issued by the bureau in my favor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

“Thus, I most respectfully move, for it is extremely warranted, to dismiss the case for utter lack of merit, factually or legally, and to restore my missionary visa. I also most respectfully move for the return of my passport to my possession as it is currently under the custody of the Bureau of Immigration,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Fox said the events she participated in were connected to her mission as a member of the Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, thus, say that the activities I have been to, wherever they may be, including participation in rallies, fact-finding missions, press conferences and the like, within and outside of Quezon City, are tied to tasks within and of the Church, with a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Religion, she added, \u201cshould not be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an option on events affecting society.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she simply lived up to the command of the Church to propose in a clear way the fundamental values of human life and convictions that can then find expression in seemingly a \u201cpolitical activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, they are not political activities per se but also religious activities within the evangelization and missionary works of religious persons,\u201d said Fox, a nun from the Our Lady of Sion.<\/p>\n

Last April 16, Fox was apprehended by BI agents for being an undesirable alien, for allegedly violating the conditions of her missionary visa after participating in partisan political activities.<\/p>\n

She was released from custody the next day.<\/p>\n

On April 23, the bureau cancelled her missionary visa and downgraded it to temporary visitor\u2019s visa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox has asked the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to dismiss the case against her for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":160539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[49749],"class_list":["post-162609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-sister-patricia-fox","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}