CBCP thumbs down proposal to arm priests

MANILA, Philippines — The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines opposed the idea of arming priests for their personal safety amid the spate of attacks on clergymen.

Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles stressed that it is part of the priests’ ministry to face risks.

“I would strongly oppose to arm the priests. We are men of God, men of the Church and it is part of our ministry to face (not always) but to face dangers, to face deaths if one may say that way. But we would do it just what Jesus did,” he told Radio Veritas.

The CBCP president earlier condemned the death of Father Richmond Nilo—parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija—calling it an “outrageously evil act.”

Military Ordinariate Administrator Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio also said that arming clergymen with guns is not the solution for crimes against them.

“It will create more chaos. It will not solve anything,” Florencio told Radio Veritas.

Last Sunday, Nilo was gunned down by unidentified attackers as he was about to celebrate mass inside a chapel in Brgy. Mayamot, Zaragoza Nueva Ecija.

He was the third priest killed in the last six months.

Activist priest Father Marcelito Paez was shot dead in Jaen, Nueva Ecija last December 4, while Father Mark Ventura was killed by armed men in Gattaran, Cagayan Province last April 29.

Nilo’s death came less than a week after Father Rey Urmeneta of the St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Calamba, Laguna survived a shooting attack. — Gaea Katreena Cabico

READ: Killing of priest ‘unchristian, un-Filipino’ — Cabanatuan bishop