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Friday, August 04, 2006
Altar boy accuses priest of hitting him
By Mia E. Abellana Sun.Star Staff Reporter
With Jujemay G. Awit
A Parish priest in Santander town in southern Cebu was accused of hitting an altar boy for giving him the wrong booklet he asked for last Sunday.
Fr. Jovencio Rabusa allegedly smacked the 13-year-old boy at 9 a.m. after the priest asked him to hand over an Ambahan booklet during the mass.
The boy reportedly failed to give him the correct booklet and kept parishioners waiting during the mass.
The teenager, whose father is a police investigator in the town, said that before he was hit, Rabusa scolded all the altar boys.
“Pasumbaga ko karon,” the priest allegedly said.
Rabusa, in a telephone interview, denied hitting the boy, saying all he did was point his finger at the boy and touched the lower lip for emphasis.
“Ako ra siyang gi-ingnan nga pagtarong gud. Ayaw og palabi pabadlong (I only told him to behave and not to cause trouble),” Rabusa said.
He sad the boy was often hard-headed, and he was just calling the boy’s attention.
Rabusa said he was in the middle of the mass when he asked the boy to get the booklet, which was needed to give the final blessing.
He had already told the churchgoers to stand for the final blessing and they were all waiting for the prayers to be brought to the altar.
Process
Rabusa said that instead of hurrying up, the boy walked around and pointed to someone else to look for the booklet.
Sought for comment, Cebu archdiocesan media liaison officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay said there is a process or steps to follow in investigating a priest who allegedly committed an offense.
In the case of Fr. Rabusa, Dakay said he has to be investigated first by his Vicario Foranio or vicariate, which is the superior of a group of parish priests.
The said investigation will in turn be forwarded to the Episcopal Vicar or the head of all the vicariates in a district. This will then be turned over to the Cebu Archdiocese.
According to Dakay, the Cebu Archdiocese has not yet received any complaint or request for such investigation.
“He (Rabusa) should undergo due process,” Dakay told Sun.Star Cebu.
Last May, Rabusa was also accused of twisting the leg of a parishioner who drew his ire for missing a meeting.
In November, he was investigated for refusing to officiate a mass for a burial because the dead person was not a member of a basic ecclesiastical community.
PO1 Leonixto Solon said he heard reports that the priest also declined to officiate burial masses for the dead whose wakes had persons gambling there.
Solon said, though, that he is not from Santander town and merely heard these rumors from his colleagues.
Rabusa said he tried to show “discipline with love” to his parishioners and that he would never try to harm anyone.
The policeman-father reportedly plans to file a child abuse case against the priest for hurting his son.
When he learned of the family’s plan, the priest said he wanted to meet them and explain his side.
He said he did not want the incident to go that far. “We just need to talk things over,” Rabusa said.
As for allegedly twisting the leg of his parishioner, he said this was already settled.
He also denied hurting the parishioner, saying they were so close that he pinched her leg in an affectionate manner and asked her not to miss their meetings next time.
As for declining to officiate burial masses, Rabusa also denied this.
He said, though, that it was normal for him to ask about the dead person’s contributions to church activities, but said he would not decline to say mass for them.
Rabusa added that he made known his disapproval of people gambling at wakes, but this did not mean he refused to say mass.
Rabusa has been parish priest of the San Gabriel Parish in Santan-der for nearly six years.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 4, 2006 issue)
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