Church to Fr. Nico: Shut up, or else...

Shut up, or else!

Outspoken Monsignor Nicanor Bautista, known for his critical stance toward the local Catholic Church’s handling of sex scandals and a champion of "optional celibacy" for the local clergy, has been sanctioned by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin for his open and public opposition to Catholic Church policies, notably priestly celibacy.

In an interview with The STAR, Bautista, head of the Catholic organization Mass Media Ministry, said he received last Monday a third admonition from Sin.

Bautista described the latest admonition as the last step to a more severe penalty of suspension, or worse, defrocking.

A copy of the third admonition, signed by Manila Archdiocese Chancellor Monsignor Roberto Canlas and dated June 19, 2003, was obtained by The STAR yesterday.

"At the order and by the authority of the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, the same Msgr. Nicanor Bautista is hereby given this third admonition to cease and desist from making public pronouncements against Church universal order and discipline... more specifically on the matter of the law of priestly celibacy and the nature of the ecclesiastical procedural instruction on categorically Church administrative and judicial concerns," the letter said.

The third admonition said, "failure of the same subject priest to satisfactorily heed this third admonition will make him incur the canonical censure of suspension — open to the imposition of the penalty of dismissal (defrocking) from the clerical state in the event he persists in his insubordination."

In his television interviews and newspaper articles, Bautista categorically declared that he was celibate but that he was for "optional celibacy" for local members of the clergy.

In one newspaper article, Bautista had written, "I hope we can get an objective view of the world situation. We value celibacy, but it is preventing competent men who could be good pastors serving God’s people but are kept away from the pastoral work either by resignation (since he wants to be authentic and get married or just refuses to enter the seminary since he wants marriage)."

On the Bacani scandal, Bautista told ANC’s "Business Morning" hosted by Ricky Carandang last Monday, "The house is on fire. Why do we walk on tiptoe? This is an emergency." He was referring to the raging controversy that has engulfed the local Catholic Church and the refusal of its leadership to squarely face the problem.

"We have to move fast and the Catholic Church has a serious responsibility for moral ascendancy," he told Carandang. "You cannot buy time, you cannot kill time."

In the same interview with "Business Morning," Bautista strongly criticized the Vatican’s decision on embattled Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. who allegedly sexually harassed his former secretary. Bautista called the Vatican decision, announced last Saturday by the Papal Nuncio, as "bitin" and added that the investigation into the case has been "taking so long."

Bautista received his first admonition from Sin on June 12 through a letter signed by the cardinal, who berated him for giving television interviews wherein he allegedly revealed details of a supposedly confidential meeting on June 10 where the sexual harassment charges against Bacani were taken up.

The June 23 issue of Newsbreak had reported that "two days after the sexual harassment complaint against Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. hogged newspaper headlines on June 8, around 200 priests of the Archdiocese of Manila were summoned to an emergency meeting at the Villa San Miguel of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. Some priests, considered too radical for a conservative institution like the Catholic Church, were not notified but they nevertheless showed up. One of the ‘gate-crashers’ was Msgr. Nico Bautista, a member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board."

In a June 18, 2003 letter to Sin obtained by The STAR on Monday, Bautista said that he did not breach confidentiality as to the June 10 Villa San Miguel meeting where the Bacani scandal was discussed.

"When I hear something in the confessional, I’m bound by the seal of confession. But if the matter has been ‘hogging’ the headlines in the media four days in a row, I’m no longer bound by the seal. So what ‘breach of confidentiality’ are they talking about?

"I’m surprised at Bishop S. Villegas ‘expressed disappointment over (his) breach of confidentiality’ agreed upon during the meeting. There was no promise made. Msgr. Anton Pascual and Msgr. Romy Rañada themselves have come out in (a newspaper) about the assembly. Why should I be singled out?," Bautista said in his letter to Sin.

On the issue of celibacy, he said that he has been celibate for 44 years.

"It’s not a walk in the Park but I thank God for sustaining me. May I reiterate, I have upheld the Church teachings, I believe in celibacy, I LIVE it and I’m ready to die for it," he said in his letter to Sin.

While Bautista has been urging the Catholic Church to be open about scandals involving the clergy, other Catholic Church officials have repeatedly turned down interviews to comply with the policy on silence.

Sin admonished Bautista for espousing optional celibacy for the clergy which "is not in harmony with the official teachings of the Church."

The second admonition was verbal which was made during a meeting with a Monsignor Antonio Unson, and another priest, at a Makati hotel last June 18. It was apparently after this meeting that Bautista wrote a letter to Sin.

Bautista told The STAR that the admonitions and the threat of defrocking have no bases as he "is merely espousing a suggestion (optional celibacy) on how to resolve the sexual misbehavior of priests."

"I will not give them the opportunity to make me a worldwide celebrity by defrocking me," he said.