A picture of Fr. Ferdinand Santos as shared by Fr. Ranhilio Aquino on Facebook.
MANILA, Philippines — The Catholic priest who gained viral following on social media has tried to tame down the enthusiasm of his supporters who were gushing over his good looks, by saying “only Chist deserves a fan club.”
Fr. Ferdinand Santos became the talk of the town, literally, when another priest, San Beda Law Dean Fr. Ranhilio Aquino posted on Facebook that he was in awe of the younger cleric — someone who gave up his post as rector of the prestigious St. John Vianney Seminary in Florida so he could come to the Philippines to work in depressed parishes.
On top of that, Aquino noted that Santos was also a licensed fitness instructor.
Aquino’s post was soon shared and reshared, with netizens commenting on Santos’ youthful looks, and the priest’s mission to the Philippines getting praised.
But Santos would not allow this to get to his head.
After the good-looking priest’s photos went viral online, the religious leader made sure that the people knew his recently changed Facebook profile photo was taken 14 years ago.
“Ok, now I have to make sure I’m clear about a photo’s timeline. LOL. Taken August 2007. PLEASE GET VACCINATED. Stay safe!” he captioned his Facebook photo on Wednesday.
A priest for 22 years, Santos said that he has been happy and fulfilled all throughout.
“Ladies and gentlemen, yours truly is old! And dang proud of it!!! The photos people have drawn from my FB page span 17 years! But no, they were not edited. I don’t have the sophistication or the time to waste to do that kind of work,” the priest said in an earlier Facebook post.
“There’s all sorts of things going on out there, including people talking about how there’s this ‘young’ priest who’s come home. Heavens! That would be great! Young at heart, hopefully forever, yes. But chronologically, sorry to disappoint you folks,” Santos added, attaching his latest photos.
In another post, Santos said that a priest “belongs to Christ,” and not to the world.
“This is also why I kept telling you while we were together, that only Christ deserves to have a ‘fan club’. People will naturally find us ‘attractive’ in many different ways… The thing is, while there’s nothing wrong in receiving their praise and admiration… we also shouldn’t forget that those words of praise do not primarily belong to us. They are first and foremost directed to Christ, not to ourselves,” he said.
“They’re Jesus’ fans, not ours. And we shouldn’t be going around trying to form our own groupies. One who does so completely misses the point of the whole situation,” he further said.
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