Bishop urges priests to have brave heart

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio has encouraged other priests to remain brave and steadfast in proclaiming the Church's teachings.

The apostolic administrator of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines said priests should not fear for their lives if they are to receive threats because of carrying out their duty in evangelizing the importance or value of human life.

“The priest's role or task should not be hampered because of the recent reports... We should not be afraid. We have to do what we should be doing,” he told The FREEMAN in a phone interview yesterday.

Florencio’s comments came after reports surfaced that religious priest Father Amado Picardal revealed he has been hiding as he is allegedly being targeted by motorcycle-riding killers. The alleged reason? His being vocal about the Duterte administration’s bloody war against illegal drugs and the extrajudicial killings in the country.

The Catholic News Agency reported that Picardal, in his recent blog, said he was first made aware of threats to his life last year and again in March this year but believed himself to be safe at the mountain hermitage where he was living.

“Before I left Manila last March to start my life as a hermit, I received a text message from a reliable source confirming that I was indeed going to be targeted for assassination by a death squad,” Fr. Picardal wrote on Aug. 26.

“I anticipated that if they knew that I was in Cebu, the first place that they would put under surveillance would be the Redemptorist Monastery in Cebu. I still felt confident that they won’t find my hermitage in the mountain.”

The report further said that over the last few months, however, monastery personnel have reported seeing men on motorcycles, with their faces hidden by helmets, loitering outside the monastery.

Picardal said the gardener was approached by two unknown men on July 7 and August 2, asking if the priest was around. He added that the monastery’s security guard informed him that six men on motorcycles had been stationed at the entrance from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on August 11.

“That was usually the time I would go out to the supermarket and the coffee shop. I immediately concluded that they were the death squad and I was the target. Had I gone out, there would have been no escape for me,” he wrote.

As a result, Fr. Picardal said he has moved to a new location to continue his life of prayer and advocacy.

Police authorities in Central Visayas have sent a chaplain to talk to Picardal and expressed willingness to give him security detail depending on the discussions. They hope Picardal would cooperate with the authorities.

As for Florencio, priests should not only choose what is convenient for them because from the very start, the to-be-ordained priests are asked if they are willing to give up their own lives in proclaiming God's word.

Part of their vow in choosing the vocation of priesthood, he added, is to preach and propagate the Church's Gospel teachings.

He explained that the catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that life is sacred and inviolable and thus, inhumane killings are strongly denounced.

“We had been tasked for this and so there is no reason to be afraid because this is the path that we choose to in the first place,” said Florencio.

To note, the Cebu Archdiocese is currently considered as the largest archdiocese in the country with its huge number of diocesan and religious priests and seminarians. — JMD (FREEMAN)