A DOMINICAN priest and instructor of the UST Faculty of Sacred Theology was arrested by the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) for allegedly mocking the supposed apparition of the Virgin Mary in Lipa City.
Fr. Winston Cabading, also an exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila, was arrested by police detectives last May 13 for allegedly violating Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code or the provision on offending religious feelings, the CIDG said in a Facebook post. The penalty for the offense is jail term that lasts from six months and a day to two years and four months.
According to the CIDG, the arrest took place at about 10:10 p.m. at the St. Mary Magdalene House in Nasugbu, Batangas. Cabading was arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81 Presiding Judge Madonna Concordia Echiverri last May 8. The court recommended a bail of P18,000 for his temporary release. A report by The Philippine Star said Cabading’s arraignment is scheduled on June 1.
Last December, former Commission on Elections chief and Mary Mediatrix of All Grace devotee Harriet Demetriou filed a complaint accusing Cabading of offending religious feelings before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office. She described the Dominican priest as a “rabid critic” of Mary and accused him of “consistently” mocking the Blessed Mother and her devotees. Demetriou argued that it is the duty of the state to safeguard her religious freedom.
Devotees of the Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace claim that she appeared before Carmelite postulant Teresing Castillo in Lipa City, Batangas in 1948. In 2015, the Vatican issued a decree stating that the supposed apparitions in Lipa City had no supernatural origin. According to the decree, Pope Pius XII already decided in 1951 that the supposed apparitions of the Virgin Mary were not of supernatural origin.
However, Demetriou insists that the 1951 decree negating the authenticity of the apparition is “nowhere to be found” in the Vatican archives.
Some lawmakers had filed bills seeking to repeal the law against offending religious feelings, saying it violates the right to free expression.
Supporters of Cabading slammed his arrest in a Facebook post, saying the complainant “refused to obey the decrees and guidance of the Catholic Church on extraordinary phenomena.”
According to the Facebook post, Cabading was unable to make an appeal since he was arrested before receiving a copy of the resolution.
The Exorcism Cross and the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism called on the public to pray for a “positive resolution” for the case. F – Aubrey Shane Lim
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to add information about the laygroups that protested Cabading’s arrest.
How about the rights of of the devotees in freedom of expression that the church authorities are trying to oppose? so this bill you said that had been filed is only for with authorities and if you’re only an ordinary person you just better shut up?
Demetriou with what you just did… you are not defending Mama Mary but your pride and your lies.
As an Exorcist, Fr Cabading is well aware of how the devil works… his deceptions.
If the Lipa apparition has been denied by Vatican as supernatural in origin and the Pope being infallible… why do you question? We believe that the Pope is guided and filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Supreme Court cases… when the judge saya its final… its final right?
Hope you be enlightened by Mama Mary coz she will never want Her son priests to be persecuted the way you just did with your filing the complaint against Fr Winston Cabading.
May God bless us, protect and deliver us from all evil, danger, temptation and harm in Jesus’ name through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Archangels Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and all the angels and saints up in Heaven…. Amen amen
Linda, the Pope is only infallible when he practice his authority “ex cathedra”. Kindly get your facts straight. Don’t be an idiot. Thanks.
Miguel, do you believe that Pope Venerable Pius XII and the Cardinals of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made a mistake in their 1951 decision?
Do you refute the CBCP’s 2016 reiteration and the Apostolic Nuncio Charles Brown’s 2022 letter verifying the decree that indeed the 1951 decision was and is the final decision of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church deeming the Lipa case as false?
A heretic is the worst type of idiot, Miguel. Thanks.
Tis so hard to be an exorcist… Truly, such it seems the devil is at work using such lawyer to kill one of the best fighters and guardian God have for us… It kills a lot that one devotee choose to go for a kill just to prove something she herself seem not able to research well… If ever, she know our Catholic faith, knowing of St. Therese of Child of Jesus, in her diary, Jesus guided us NEVER will we attack our priests… We should pray for them… For they are the ones wrong, Jesus will be the one to correct them but if we attack our priest, JESUS we kill…
This the same as Just as what Jesus say which is written in the bible, “whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me.”
Tis so hard to be an exorcist… Truly, such it seems the devil is at work using such lawyer to kill one of the best fighters and guardian God have for us… It kills a lot that one devotee choose to go for a kill just to prove something she herself seem not able to research well… If ever, she know our Catholic faith, knowing of St. Therese of Child of Jesus, in her diary, Jesus guided us NEVER will we attack our priests… We should pray for them… For IF they are the one’s wrong, Jesus will be the one to correct them but if we attack our priest, JESUS we kill…
This the same as Just as what Jesus say which is written in the bible, “whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me.”