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A Catholic bishop in the Phillippines has ordered a probe into a suspected ‘fake’ ordination.
Philippine Bishop Precioso Cantillas of Maasin, who ordained John Baptist Ho Huu Hoa a priest last December, admitted that the controversy over the ordination “is truly unfortunate and upsetting.”
“We are now taking the necessary steps and procedures which will hopefully help all concerned to be enlightened, and so issues will be clarified,” Bishop Cantillas, who also ordained Hoa as a deacon last September, said in a statement on Feb. 17.
Controversy about the ‘priest’ began in February after Catholics in Vietnam objected to John Baptist Ho Huu Hoa administering sacraments.
Hoa was jailed for bribery and released from prison in late 2021.
The timing meant he could not have had the mandatory four years of theology training in a seminary.
Complaints about Hoa reached Bishop Alfonse Nguyen Huu Long of Vinh, where Hoa’s parish is based in Vietnam.
Long then banned him “from celebrating sacraments and services” in the diocese.
The bishop said he had been “surprised” by Hoa’s ordination and asked him to “present the documents of his ordination so that he could celebrate sacraments validly.
“So far, I have not received any documents from him or Maasin diocese,” Long said.
On 10 February, he issued a statement disowning Hoa as a priest.
How Hoa convinced people
A video of Hoa’s ordination ceremony went viral on social media.
It shows the priest chancellor of the Maasin diocese in the Philippines reading out Long’s dimissorial letter about Hoa during the ordination ceremony.
The dimissorial letter is a canonical document issued by a bishop to a person in his diocese so another bishop can ordain him.
The letter “is completely fake” Long said.
“We are now taking the necessary steps and procedures which will hopefully help all concerned to be enlightened, and so issues will be clarified.”
Long has also suspended the diocesan chancellor of Father Gerard Nguyen Nam Viet, who testified for Hoa during his ordination in the Philippine diocese.
Philippine Bishop Precioso Cantillas of Maasin, who ordained Hoa last December, said the controversy over the ordination “is truly unfortunate and upsetting”.
Cantillas also ordained Hoa as a deacon last September.
A Vietnamese priest said Cantillas must be held responsible “for the illicit ordination as he totally failed to carry out a full investigation”.
The prelate could have verified Hoa’s background, as many Vietnamese priests study and work in the Philippines.
The priest accused Cantillas of causing a great scandal in the Churches in Vietnam and the Philippines.
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