Marianic Cultist has RCC Priest Arrested.

Post Reply New Topic

To summarize events: Teresita Lat Castillo also known as Sister Teresing (July 4, 1927 -- November 16, 2016) was a Filipino Catholic nun and an alleged visionary who reported Marian apparitions in Lipa, Batangas, Philippines in the year 1948. These alleged apparitions have been the subject of controversy. An initial investigation report in 1951 was signed by six Catholic bishops and approved by Pope Pius XII declared the Lipa apparitions as "non-supernatural". Despite the local bishop's attempt to re-open the investigation, in 2016 the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith upheld the earlier ruling that the Catholic Church has decreed "with finality" that the reported Lipa apparition "is not from God." -- Wikipedia

Chronology of Events

1910-04-10: The Diocese of Lipa is created, separating it from that of Manila under the supervision of Pope Pius X and with Giuseppe Petrelli as its first bishop.

1915-03-30: Giuseppe Petrelli is appointed as Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines. Alfredo Florentin Versoza is appointed as Bishop to the Diocese of Lipa.

1927-07-04: Teresita Lat Castillo is born. She is the youngest of seven children of former Batangas Governor Modesto Castillo.

1948-07-04: Teresita Lat Castillo enters the Carmelite Monastery of Lipa on her 21st birthday. The Carmelite Convent in Lipa, the site of the reported apparitions, eventually becomes the subject of major pilgrimages in the Philippines, one attended by the president of Philippines.

1948-09-12: Castillo allegedly sees a vine in the garden shake though there is no wind at all. A woman's voice allegedly tells her to kiss the ground and return for fifteen consecutive days.

1948-09-13: Castillo returns to the place, where she allegedly saw an apparition of a woman dressed all in white, allegedly calling itself "Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace".

1948-09-14: A shower of rose petals allegedly takes place in various locations at the Carmelite Monastery. Castillo allegedly becomes blind, a condition that is allegedly relieved only when when the prioress of Carmel, Cecilia Zialcita, kisses the eyelids of Castillo. Sister Teresita claims to have seen her last vision.

1951-01-22: Auxiliary Bishop Obviar, the spiritual director of Carmel Lipa, is installed as Apostolic Administrator of the new Diocese of Lucena.

1951-03-29: A decision, taken after careful investigation by the Congregation, refers to the fact that the alleged apparition events did not have a supernatural origin. The decision is then presented and discussed with Pope Pius XII, who approves it.

1953-12-28: Alejandro Ayson Olalia is appointed as Bishop to the Diocese of Lipa.

1972-06-20: The Diocese of Lipa becomes the country's tenth archdiocese and ecclesiastical province by order of Pope Paul VI.

1973-08-22: Ricardo Jamin Vidal is appointed as Archbishop to the Diocese of Lipa.

1981-04-13: Archbishop Olalia is appointed as Archbishop of Cebu, and Cardinal. Mariano. Garces Gaviola is appointed as Archbishop to the Diocese of Lipa.

1992-??-??: In violation of the 1951 Vatican decision, Archbishop Mariano Gaviola grants permission to once again display the image of "Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace" in Lipa.

1992-12-13: Archbishop Gaviola retires from office. Gaudencio Borbon Rosales is appointed as Archbishop to the Diocese of Lipa.

2004-05-14: Pope John Paul II appoints Bishop Ramon Cabrera Arguelles of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines as the fifth Archbishop of Lipa.

2009-11-18: Gaviola's successor, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles creates a commission to conduct a new investigation into the alleged apparitions, which lifts the ban on veneration of "Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace" at Lipa.

2015-09-12: Archbishop Arguellas approves the alleged apparitions as "supernatural in character and worthy of belief" the apparitions to Teresita Castillo.

2015-12-11: The Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) decrees "with finality" on December 11, 2015 -- under the authority of Pope Francis -- that the alleged Lipa apparition had "no sign of supernatural character or origin".

2016-05-??: The CDF, under Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, overrules the archbishop and rejects his 2012 decree declaring that the alleged Marian apparitions in Batangas in 1948 were not authentic.

2016-05-31: Archbishop Arguelles himself discloses the ruling by the CDF in an archdiocesan communiqué. In its decree, the CDF reiterates that Pope Pius XII had made a definitive confirmation in 1951 against the supposed apparitions declaring that they "were not of supernatural origin," which the local authority had no authority to overrule.

2016-05-??: Archbishop Arguelles states he is obeying the Vatican ruling: "... in my love for the Church and in obedience to God's Will, I submit to the CDF's declaration that my September 12, 2015, decree and all declarations related thereto are null and void."

2016-07-09: The CBCP Episcopal Commission on the Doctrine of the Faith issues a pastoral advisory affirming the authority and finality of the Vatican verdict. This means that the alleged Lipa apparition is not worthy of belief.

2016-11-16: Teresita Lat Castillo, also known as Sister Teresing, dies in the City of Parañaque, in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. Her remains are buried at the Lipa monastery grounds.

2017-02-02: Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Archbishop Arguelles. Gilbert Armea Garcera is appointed as Archbishop to the Diocese of Lipa.

2022-12-09: Marian devotee Harriet Demetriou (former justice of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan and former elections chief of the Philippines) files a 15-page complaint alleging that Father Winston Cabading, a Dominican exorcist priest, had violated Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes "anyone who, in a place devoted to religious worship or during the celebration of any religious ceremony shall perform acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful."

2023-02-20: Local prosecutor files a rejoinder affidavit in the case.

2023-04-20: Local prosecutor issues a resolution recommending the filing of a case against Father Cabadang.

2023-05-08: The warrant of arrest is issued by Madonna Concordia Echiverri, presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81, with a recommended bail of P18,000 ($305).

2023-05-08: Father Winston Cabading is arrested for a 1930s crime called "offending religious feelings."

2023-05-15: Father Cabadang is released on bail.

2023-05-24: Cabading said some Catholics, "take offense at this position of the Church" and "seek to silence the Church and her ministers in this."

"The case filed against me all boils down to the fact that some people do not want to accept the judgment of the Church that the apparition is not worthy of belief," said Cabading, who is also a theology instructor and former vice rector at UST.

"We admonish the Catholic faithful to read the official Church document and discover that the Church has already spoken," Cabading said. "The case is closed."

No one cares?  Is no one really concerned that there are countries that still have some form of "Blasphemy Law"?

Does no one else see such laws being enacted in the USA if Ron DeSantis or another Republican is elected President?

It is rather odd that a law like that would still be in place.

Definitely something I would prefer not be a law.

Too easily abused.

I think though people also shouldn't be dictating what people believe or don't believe.in.

Definitely

Its an odd dispute in another country that is hard to even translate into American politics.

And it seems to me to have a number of paradoxes.

If I declared myself to be Jesus Christ, and managed to form a cult around myself most folks would accuse me of "blasphemy". But lucky for me the US has no actual laws against blasphemy.

But lets say that the US did have some law on the books (a holdover from earlier times) against blasphemy as apparently, they do in the Philippines.

And lets say that Billy Graham were still alive, were to join forces with Wilton Daniel Gregory (the Catholic Archbishop of the nation's capital) to represent both Protestants and Catholics in a joint statement condemning "NaturalPastic's cult as demonic".

And then imagine that as a result...Graham and Gregory both...get thrown into the slammer for "Blasphemy", but I dont get arrested for Blasphemy (even though I would be the one with the creed that mainstream Christians would classify as foul heresy and "blasphemy").

THATs the equivalent of this Philippine case. The tail wagging the dog.

I would think that the bishop in question could just turn around and have the cultist arrested for violating the same blasphemy laws (just for expressing their own beliefs). And take them to the cleaners in civil court as well because by mainstream Catholic rules and according to the Pope its the cultists who would be the blasphemers, and not him.

Billy Graham and the DC archbishop Gregory would indeed be guilty of "hurting the feelings" of my cult followers. But my cult followers would not be classified as a comprising any recognized real religion. So hurting my cult followers feelings would not really be considered "blasphemy" even in a country that had antiblashemy laws...I would think.

So this guy being jailed may be because some local official is a cultist, or is taking bribes from cultists.

The religious Right in the US would identify with the Philippine Bishop being arrested, not with the cultists, and would brand the government that arrested him as being "Woke", and being "overly sensitive to the rights and feelings of a minority group".

We cant have THAT. The government being sensitive to every little weirdo group!

Or maybe not.

American Pentecostals might sympathize with the populist rebel Philippine Catholics who believe in this Mary vision and take their side against the big bad pope and his local bishop. Who knows?

So, in the Philippines, nobody can say anything against anyone else's religion?

Next, we will be burning witches.