AFTER kababayans found out via social media about how a Catholic priest from Cebu insulted and humiliated a 17-year old mother during the solemn sacrament of baptism of her baby, many ask: what right has this priest to do that, especially in front of the public to witness?
Speaking in the vernacular Cebuano, the priest Fr. Romeo Obach asked the young mother “whether she was ashamed that she had a baby with a man who was not her husband.” Obach then reportedly went on to say that while the baby had not sinned, her mother did, after she slept with a man who was not her husband.
The video posted by the teen mom on Facebook also showed Obach warning the mother that the consequences of her actions may be passed on to her child, as her child was born due to “sin.”
As a background information, this teen mom was reportedly abandoned by her boyfriend and had gone through depression. Yet, with the support of family and psychiatric help, she was able to rise up, move on and take care of her baby as a single mother.
ABS-CBN news reported that Fr. Romeo Obach has already publicly apologized to the teen mom and her family, and has been barred from celebrating Mass and other religious activities pending an internal investigation.
We asked this question in the online poll of The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast Balitang America: “Should kids of unmarried couples be baptized into the Catholic Church?”.
Most of the viewers who voted — 82 percent say YES. Only 18 percent answered NO, contending that to have a child out of wedlock is a sin. They said let the parents get married first before allowing their child to be baptized.
Even Pope Francis believes so, and even baptized the child of an unmarried couple during a ceremony at the Sistine Chapel in Rome — without putting them to shame.
Pope has previously spoken out to encourage priests to baptize the children of unmarried women in order to pass on the Christian faith, calling those who refuse ‘hypocrites’.
Quoting the Vatican Network, Pope Francis reportedly said: ‘You parents have the baby boy or girl to be baptized, but in a few years it will be they who will have a baby to be baptized, or a grandchild… And so goes the chain of faith.”
Here are some of the comments of our readers:
Yes, they should [baptize the kids of unmarried couples]. It was not the child’s fault being born as illegitimate. It is not because they were born illegitimate they should not be baptize. That is really ridiculous. — Marilyn Patacsil
Buti nga hindi pinalaglag yung bata at inaalagaan at inaalay sa Panginoon. Dapat nga ay binigyang pagkilala ang ganitong pagbangong muli at pagsunod sa Diyos, imbis na hiniya ang dalagang ina at ang pamilya nito! – Anonymous
That priest should have [chosen to have self-restraint] in unwed mom’s case. Compassion first, doctrine later. — Jessie Torres
What you see is a reflection of a struggle within the Church: one side prefers to purge. — Kiko Acero
Mary was an unwed young girl when she became pregnant with Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God. Jewish laws at that time require that women like her are stoned to death. But thousands of years after, we all know the truth about Mary’s pregnancy. People who have compassionate and loving hearts, and not those who are strictly following the letter of the law, would answer yes. Mary’s son was the full embodiment of love and law.
As Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” — Jacqui Conclara
Simply put, what would Jesus do? Did Jesus ridicule the adulterous women who touched his cloak? Let he who was not sinned cast the first stone. As a practicing Catholic, I find the actions of this priest as abhorrent and against all that we stand for. — Rick Litiatco
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
