Fake priest nabbed after saying Mass in P'sinan

BINMALEY, Pangasinan, Philippines – A 35-year-old man from Quezon City was arrested here for presenting himself as a Catholic priest and celebrating Mass in a chapel Sunday night.

The fake priest, Ferdinand Bustos Suarez, was charged with estafa at the provincial prosecutor’s office yesterday.

Police arrested Suarez in Barangay Canaoalan when parishioners became suspicious, as he did not know the sequence of the Mass. He was wearing a priest’s chasuble when arrested.

A parishioner invited Suarez to celebrate Mass at the Señor Tesoro Chapel after meeting him in Quiapo, Manila.

However, a seminarian asked to assist Suarez became suspicious about his manner of saying Mass.

Suarez would interchange what to say in raising the bread for the body of Christ and the cup for the blood of Christ during the Mass.

During Holy Communion, Suarez would just give the host to parishioners without saying, “The body of Christ.”

Vigilant parishioners then sought the help of Fr. Fernan Estrada, parish priest of the Most Holy Rosary Parish that covers the chapel in Canaoalan.

Estrada, with the help of barangay officials, talked to Suarez at the house of the parishioner who had invited him to find out the diocese he belongs to and other information.

Suarez though could not give correct answers, prompting Estrada to seek police assistance.

Seized from Suarez were P1,193 collected during the Mass, a bottle of holy water, hosts for the communion, and priest’s clothes, among others.

He also had a Qur’an, the central religious text of Islam.