FIRST SAY: “One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would like to think—though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one—that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell.”― Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Miracles, supernatural events, apparitions and other stupidities are again in the news. The reason is that a Quezon City court has dismissed the case filed against exorcist priest Fr. Winston Cabading who was accused of offending religious feelings, particularly the religious feelings of a celebrated lady lawyer. The case was filed by Atty. Harriet Demetriou, former chair of the Commission on Elections, and former chief presidential legal counsel of President Joseph Estrada. In a nine-page order, the QC Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 224 granted the motion filed by Cabading and quashed the information and amended information filed against him by former Comelec chairperson Harriet Demetriou, obviously a defender of the Virgin Mary. “Otherwise stated, the facts alleged and charged in the original Information and the Amended information do not constitute an offense,” the court said. Demetriou filed the case against Cabading over his alleged statements on the authenticity of the 1948 Lipa Apparitions in a digital Catholic show. Demetriou, in her complaint, accused the priest of being a “rabid critic” of Mary and
lambasted his comment doubting the 1951 Lipa Diocesan Verdict that “negated the authenticity of the 1948 apparition of Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.” In September 2023, the court said the information Demetriou filed failed to state the facts which constitute an offense. It gave the prosecution an opportunity to amend the information and correct the defect under Sec. 4, Rule 117 of the Revised Penal Code.
Demetrious then filed an amended petition in February after her motion for reconsideration on the court's order was dismissed. This was “sablay na naman” as the court ruled that the amended information did not cure the defects in the original information.
“Verily, the Court holds that neither the original Information nor the Amended Information is sufficient as the same did not set forth the specific allegation of every fact and circumstance necessary to constitute the crime of Offending the religious feelings through and with the use of information and communications technologies,” the court said.
Demetriou is unfazed, and said the dismissal is not final and vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court. “My lawyers and I will appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court which is the final arbiter of all legal disputes. I'll exhaust all available remedies provided by law to every litigant,” she told reporters.
Demetriou also said there is a separate perjury case filed against Cabading before a
Makati court.Meanwhile, Father Cabading whose expertise is to cast away devils and demons from human persons and send them packing back to hell, welcomed the court’s decision. "We thank the judge for the decision. Despite the arrest of May last year, I was confident that the truth will eventually prevail, for I have faith in our justice system,” he said.
We commiserate with Father Cabading, who must be very busy these days driving away demons as an exorcist priest of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism (AMOE). He was arrested and detained for quoting some lesser-known Vatican pronouncements on the controversial Lipa apparitions some 70 or so years ago. Cabading was arrested on May 13, 2023. He posted bail and was granted provisional liberty by the court, making him no longer a person deprived of liberty (PDL). I wonder if Cabading is also a personal deprived of sleep (PDS) because he must be seeing various demons and evil spirits at night. Whatever, both Cabading and Demetriou should probably be informed that the Vatican has recently changed the rules “lest the flock be misled.” There are now new guidelines published by the Holy See’s powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and, for the first time, updated the rules introduced in 1978. These guidelines are about the determination of “miracles” and supernatural events that concerns Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and other characters. It seems that bishops have been countermanded by the Cardinals and the Pope in determining the authenticity of these events. Christopher Hitchens said a long time ago that the Catholic Church has many things to apologize for, and it took decades before the Church apologized for the death sentence of Galileo, and decades still for the correction on the notion of where the souls of unbaptized babies go then they die—limbo. Now they say there is no such place as limbo. Pope Francis has a better record in apologizing. He said sorry for the role of Catholic priests and nuns in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which slaughtered 800,000 people in just 100 days. He mumbled the “I am sorry” in 2017.
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