Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz: Lifestyle checks. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—It’s not only government officials but the clergy who should undergo lifestyle checks.
With the example set by Pope Francis and to ensure that it becomes “a Church of the Poor,” the Catholic Church in the Philippines should conduct “lifestyle checks” on its priests, a retired archbishop said on Tuesday.
Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said bishops should also be included, after the Vatican removed “seven to eight” Filipino bishops in the last 37 years due to misbehavior or mismanagement of their dioceses.
“There were many bishops (who were removed)… I think about seven or eight whose misbehavior reached the Holy Father through the apostolic nuncio,” said Cruz in an interview.
He said the Vatican privately asked those bishops to resign and they voluntarily did so. Cruz declined to identify them.
“The reasons (behind the resignations that) I knew were sexual reasons, one was obedience and another was administration. Sometimes a bishop does not know how to administer a (diocese) so there is chaos in its management,” said Cruz, a former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
He said Pope Francis’s call for the Catholic Church to be a “Church of the Poor” and his example of living a simple life when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires should have an impact on the Filipino clergy.
“Frankly, I myself was affected by his simplicity. I think there are things I don’t need which I should give up. I have renounced them,” Cruz said.
He said the bishops would be open to “lifestyle checks” because they had “nothing to hide,” adding that no one among the seven or eight bishops who resigned were accused of corruption.
“In fact, a bishop would be noticed only when he misbehaves. But if he lives rather well and in an acceptable manner, nothing is said about him and nobody notices. But the moment the bishop misbehaves, it goes to the nuncio,” he said.
Cruz said the nuncio then reports to the Vatican and it is the Pope who has the final say about what happens to the erring bishop.
Asked about the bishops who received SUVs during the Arroyo administration, Cruz said many of them did not ask for the vehicles and they were not for their personal use but for their ministries in far-flung parishes.
Cruz, however, drew the line on the bishop from Mindanao who asked for a vehicle from then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as a “birthday gift.”
He said complaints against priests could involve improper relations with women, “engaging in business,” gambling and alcoholism.