THE FOLLOWING is a hypothetical situation:
An activist priest exposes the extravagant lifestyles of many bishops.
He is then arrested on trumped-up rape charges and detained.
After being ordered released by the court, the priest recounts what he went through at the hands of policemen who arrested him.
The priest points an accusing finger at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Some top officials of the Philippine National Police who are devout Catholics apparently took their cue from the CBCP after they received complaints about the outspoken priest, whose allegations might divide the Church. True enough, his exposé has led to dissension and disunity within the Catholic Church.
That, dear readers, is what’s happening now within the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).
An expelled minister of the INC, Lowell Menorca II, has spilled the beans on his church which, he claimed, ordered his abduction and detention by armed men on charges that he threatened two construction workers with a grenade.
“That was the grenade thrown at me. That was the grenade they were using to try to kill me,” Menorca said of the allegations against him.
The ex-minister’s denial seems valid.
Why would Menorca, an INC minister in Bulan town, Sorsogon province, threaten two poor laborers who could have been members of his congregation?
Why would Menorca keep a grenade—let’s say, for protection against his enemies—when he could summon INC members to his side?
INC members, you see, are very closely-knit and will come to each other’s aid if one is threatened with bodily harm, especially by outsiders.
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The law says a suspect shall be detained and tried in court in the town or city where the crime supposedly took place.
If Menorca did what he was accused of—threaten two laborers with a grenade in Bulan town—why was he detained in Dasmariñas City, Cavite province, many hours away by car?
Menorca points to the INC’s Sanggunian (advisory council)—roughly the equivalent of the CBCP—as the group behind his ordeal.
The Sanggunian, the former minister says, suspected him of being the mysterious blogger who exposed the alleged wrongdoings of several top INC officials.
The revelations of Menorca, as well as those of other respected INC ministers and even some members of the family of the late Felix Manalo who founded the church, have caused disenchantment among many INC followers.
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If it’s any consolation to the INC hierarchy, the Catholic Church in its early years was wracked by dissension and disunity after some priests exposed the wrongdoings of its high officials, including the Pope.
But the revelations may have a cleansing effect that will eventually lead to a better INC.
The Catholic Church is a better religious organization today because its warts and imperfections were exposed many, many years ago by reformist priests, some of whom eventually founded Protestant churches.