Beware, priest may be fake

The Diocese of San Pablo in Laguna has warned the faithful about a “Fr. Michael P. Caadan” from Timor Leste, a fake priest going around saying Mass and soliciting money.

This was reported by CBCP News, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, which said that Caadan had claimed to be affiliated with the Tahanan ni Maria Home for the Aged in Barangay (village) Lantic, Carmona, Cavite.

In a circular last week, San Pablo Bishop Buenaventura Famadico quoted a letter from the Diocese of Dili, the East Timor capital, saying they did not have a priest named Michael Caadan.

In a letter to Famadico, the chancellor of the Diocese of Dili, Fr. Ludgerio Martins da Silva, said: “We are surprised to [sic] this weird document. In early year of 2000, we restarted our Curia where Monsignor Carlos Belo did ordain three priests that year, but not with “Michael Caadan” of the Congregation of Santissima Trinidad never exist [sic] in Timor Leste,” or East Timor.

According to Famadico, Caadan had been regularly saying Mass at the Vicariate of St. Polycarp in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Caadan had submitted a document to the San Pablo diocese identifying him as a priest ordained by Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo in 2000.

Martins da Silva also said in his letter: “We want to confirm that the Diocese of Dili never has issued this document and never has the seal used in this document. The statements in the document using a mix of wrong English confuse those who understand Portuguese.”

“We are [sic] absolutely declare that the document is a fake one and the Diocese of Dili has never known any Padre Michael Caadan,” he said.

Two years ago, the Archdiocese of Jaro warned against a fake Franciscan priest going to homes and offices soliciting money for religious purposes.

While going to these places in Iloilo, the man carried an image of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help which supposedly came from Barcelona, Spain, said the archdiocese’s Commission on Social Communications (CSC).

The archdiocese advised the faithful to demand a celebret if anyone claiming to be a priest shows up offering religious services. A celebret is an authorization letter issued by a bishop to a priest.

The CSC said priests and seminarians did not go around to homes and offices to solicit funds.–Jerry E. Esplanada