Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Priest, facing sex complaint, ‘must show himself’ to the cardinal By Nancy R. Cudis Sun.Star Correspondent
THE Archdiocese of Cebu also wants the priest accused of lascivious acts to show up.
Fr. Benedicto Ejares has been accused of committing lascivious acts on high school students while he was hearing their confession during a seminar in November last year.
National Bureau of Investigation 7 Director Medardo de Lemos filed seven counts of acts of lasciviousness and separate complaints of sexual harassment against Ejares before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor last week.
Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal said he cannot issue statements yet on the matter because he has not talked to Ejares.
Msgr. Achilles Dakay, Cebu Archdiocese media liaison officer, is confident Ejares reads the local papers.
“He must show himself to Cardinal Vidal so we will know what we can do,” Dakay said.
While Dakay earlier said the archdiocese does not have any actions yet on the matter, he advised Ejares to get a personal lawyer.
“From the very beginning (of the case), I advised Ejares not to show himself in public yet,” Vidal told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday after the opening mass of the 15th Convention of the Canon Law Society of the Philippines.
While Vidal disallowed Ejares from officiating mass and confession in public, he said Ejares is still a priest, although he does not have an assignment.
Ejares was previously assigned at the Sta. Lucia Parish in Asturias, Cebu from 1998 to 2002.
Auxiliary Bishop Julito Cortes, Ejares’ former supervisor, earlier said he is not the right person to know the whereabouts of Ejares but Cardinal Vidal.
But Vidal himself does not know where Ejares is.
“I suppose he went abroad,” Vidal said.
The prelate celebrated the opening mass for canon lawyers who are among the participants in a four-day convention on Canon Law.
He said that the Canon Law is a higher form of law because it is not only an ordinance of reason but also an enlightenment of faith.
“I pray that your meeting will bear fruit in the better organization of our marriage tribunals so that our people will benefit from the pastoral case which these tribunals are supposed to provide,” Vidal said in his homily.
“It is our duty, as interpreters and implementers of the law, to give it a human face, to cushion the impact of the letter with the consolation of its spirit, to bring out the pastoral implication of each provision through the manner of our implementation,” he added.
