CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Healing priest Fr. Fernando Suarez can now heave a sigh of relief.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has exonerated Suarez who was accused of sexual abuse.
A letter was sent by the Congregation to the judicial vicar and retired Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias of its not guilty ruling.
Tobias, through the National Tribunal of Appeals (NOA) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), informed Suarez and other priests and bishops about the ruling from the Vatican through a decree of notification.
“This means that he [Suarez] has been falsely accused of these crimes and, therefore, nothing now stands [in the way] for him to exercise his healing ministry, provided it is done properly in coordination with the ecclesiastical authority of every ecclesiastical jurisdiction,” the decree said.
The decree of notification was issued on January 6, 2020.
Suarez, from the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose de Occidental Mindoro, was banned by several bishops from conducting healing masses due to the allegation of committing sexual abuse.
Among the said bishops was Bishop Jose Cabantan, Malaybalay bishop; former archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, and the late Bishop Jose Oliveros of the Diocese of Malolos.
It can be recalled that the NOA submitted the case of Suarez to the Vatican for action on May 8, 2019.
