Some injustice was done to Bishop Ambo David of Angeles City. The culprit happens to be me over an issue that came out recently in this paper on the Vatican reportedly creating a tribunal for priests seeking dispensation from priesthood.
The fact is that the Vatican did not. At least in the recent years, as tribunals at the national and diocesan levels of the Catholic church in the Philippines and other countries have been there for quite some time. The mistake I made was passed on to Bishop Ambo who was the lone source of my story.
Was the report entirely “kuryente”? Fortunately for our readers, not really. While the tribunals are not new, their power to act on dispensation petitions from priests is new to them, one granted a only few weeks ago.
And yes, the new power of the tribunals had nothing to do with the case of suspended priest Gov. Eddie Panlilio, although I don’t think I said this in my article.
So I plead mea culpa.. I ask for Bishop Ambo’s foregiveness, for it can never be said that the good bishop, being a ranking Church official, could be unaware of something as basic as the existence of church tribunals. Undoubted by those who have known him for years, brilliance is one virtue he is gifted with; he has one of the best minds in the local clergy. This is readily deciphered when one tunes in to the regular local television program Men of Light which he has been co-hosting for many years now.
The error was my fault, one that I could perhaps dismiss as consequence of andropause (the male equivalent of menopause), as my colleague Bong Lacson would suspect. I’d be happy to have this as explanation since such a state, regardless of sex, is supposed to be temporary: mental lapses, physiological aberrations, temperamental bursts that eventually level off.
But, alas, my suspicion is more unfortunate. I think my lapses, sporadic but consistently so, were a result of the mild strokes that hit me after the 2007 elections. I got hospitalized for two episodes of such illness which, by God’s grace, were not enough to significantly debilitate me.
Lest potential interviewees consider me pariah, I have to say that I have been doing my mental and physical calisthenics to iron out stroke kinks. The advance is good, I think.
The fact is that the Vatican did not. At least in the recent years, as tribunals at the national and diocesan levels of the Catholic church in the Philippines and other countries have been there for quite some time. The mistake I made was passed on to Bishop Ambo who was the lone source of my story.
Was the report entirely “kuryente”? Fortunately for our readers, not really. While the tribunals are not new, their power to act on dispensation petitions from priests is new to them, one granted a only few weeks ago.
And yes, the new power of the tribunals had nothing to do with the case of suspended priest Gov. Eddie Panlilio, although I don’t think I said this in my article.
So I plead mea culpa.. I ask for Bishop Ambo’s foregiveness, for it can never be said that the good bishop, being a ranking Church official, could be unaware of something as basic as the existence of church tribunals. Undoubted by those who have known him for years, brilliance is one virtue he is gifted with; he has one of the best minds in the local clergy. This is readily deciphered when one tunes in to the regular local television program Men of Light which he has been co-hosting for many years now.
The error was my fault, one that I could perhaps dismiss as consequence of andropause (the male equivalent of menopause), as my colleague Bong Lacson would suspect. I’d be happy to have this as explanation since such a state, regardless of sex, is supposed to be temporary: mental lapses, physiological aberrations, temperamental bursts that eventually level off.
But, alas, my suspicion is more unfortunate. I think my lapses, sporadic but consistently so, were a result of the mild strokes that hit me after the 2007 elections. I got hospitalized for two episodes of such illness which, by God’s grace, were not enough to significantly debilitate me.
Lest potential interviewees consider me pariah, I have to say that I have been doing my mental and physical calisthenics to iron out stroke kinks. The advance is good, I think.
