Ilocos priest also ridicules unwed mothers

There was no video clip, no recording whatsoever, but Rose (not her real name) still vividly remembers the incident at the St. William’s Cathedral in Laoag a few years back.

There were three other babies to be baptized that day and the priest asked for the fathers to gather in front. When the priest saw that the young woman was alone with her son, he asked where the father was. Rose, a single mom, said there wouldn’t be anyone. Laughing sarcastically the priest asked, with the whole congregation listening, “Apay, awan kadi isuna idi inaramidyo dayta?” (Why, wasn’t he there when you did it?) The priest went on to publicly scold Rose, who was left by her boyfriend even before she knew she was pregnant. The young woman, made to feel ashamed of herself, was on the verge of tears while the priest, insisting that a father is needed to raise the child, did not begin the ceremony. It was then that Rose’s uncle stepped forward and asserted, “I’ll stand up for this child.”

This incident, dear karikna, is not an isolated case. I have personally talked to other sources who have confirmed this priest’s habit of shaming single mothers. And there are surely other members of the clergy who do the same and prefer judgment and condemnation over God’s overflowing grace, love, and compassion. One priest, also from the diocese, made another woman cry on a day that should have been her happiest moment. Impatient about the wedding running a few minutes late, the priest began the ceremonies even when the bride was yet to arrive. The bride cried a river and ruined her make up, and not because of joy.

As for Rose who felt the hurt rushing back to her upon learning that a teenage mom was similarly shamed in Cebu, she only wishes that no more person would be subjected to the same public humiliation she went through. But because there was no viral video to upload and no outrage from the public, this gun-toting priest who once pointed one of his many firearms at another gun-owning priest during an altercation, remains unlike Cebu’s Fr. Romeo Obach who has publicly apologized, and even more unlike Pope Francis who finds no difficulty saying, “Who am I to judge?”

He is currently assigned in a garlic-producing town in southern Ilocos Norte.