MANILA, Philippines -- After saying he was ready to leave the priesthood to run for president in 2010, Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio said he would try to be reinstated as a priest should he lose in the polls.
Even though he has been suspended from his priestly duties during his three-year gubernatorial term, Panlilio said on Monday that he found it hard to completely give up the priesthood.
The Catholic Church prohibits its priests from running for public office, and Panlilio's immediate superior, San Fernando Archbishop Panciano Aniceto, has reminded him about a requirement to formally ask for dispensation from the Vatican before he seeks higher office.
“That's the point. That calls for a big sacrifice because I truly love being a priest. In fact should I lose (in the 2010 presidential elections), I will still return to the priesthood if I could,” Panlilio said in an interview.
Told that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) had said that he could no longer be reinstated as a priest after being granted dispensation, Panlilio was undeterred.
“That is unfortunate. I will contest that because there are past cases where a priest who has left the priesthood for example because he wants to take care of his mother, have been allowed to return. In my case, we are not just talking of taking care of our mother but our motherland,” he said.
Panlilio said he was giving himself until November 30, the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy for national positions, to decide if he would run for president and file his request for dispensation from the Church.
The Vatican provides for a process where a priest who chooses to leave the priesthood for one reason or another may be granted dispensation.
Once granted dispensation, the priest is released from his clerical obligations of celibacy and obedience to his bishop and could no longer celebrate mass and administer the sacraments.
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