FORMER UST Secretary General Fr. Winston Cabading, O.P. is set to face the court on June 1, following a case filed against him for allegedly “offending religious feelings.”
Harriet Demetriou, a former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairwoman and former Sandiganbayan justice, filed the complaint against Cabading on Dec. 12, 2022 at the Quezon City prosecutor’s office. She accused Cabading of mocking the devotion to Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace in Lipa City, Batangas.
Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code penalizes “anyone who, in a place devoted to religious worship or during the celebration of any religious ceremony shall perform acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful.”
Guilty offenders face a penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period (imprisonment for four months and one day to six months) up to prision correcional in its minimum period (imprisonment for six months and one day to two years and four months).
Cabading was arrested on May 13, 2023. He posted bail of P18,000 and was granted provisional liberty on May 15.
The Dominican priest, who is also an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Manila, will be arraigned on June 1.
In her 12-page complaint, Demetriou, a devotee of the Mediatrix of All Grace, called Cabading a “rabid critic” of the Mediatrix of All Grace, whose supposed apparition at the Carmelite Monastery of Lipa in 1948 had been declared by the Vatican as lacking in supernatural origin.
“As a devotee of Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace and a lawyer, I believe that it is the duty of the State to safeguard my religious freedom,” Demetriou said in her complaint, which she posted on Facebook.
Demetriou cited an episode of the online commentary show “Pananampalataya at Katuwiran,” hosted by Wendell Talibong, titled “[Warning] Mabangong langis, umaagos sa Our Lady of Mediatrix, Eksperto nagbabala!” In the episode, Talibong flashed a statement made by Cabading regarding the events surrounding a Marian image.
In the episode published on May 28, 2022, Talibong said he consulted Cabading after talking to an unnamed priest who claimed that fragrant oil was flowing from an image of Mary in an undisclosed parish.
Talibong quoted Cabading as saying: “The statue is a Lipa statue, therefore, already suspect. Next, has the oil said to exude from the statue been examined as to what kind of oil? Has the statue been scientifically examined as to remove doubts and skepticism? Unfortunately, in Batangas, maraming mga ganyang ‘extraordinary phenomena.”
Cabading was also quoted as saying that the petals in the unnamed parish were not unique like in the Lipa apparition that the Vatican had declared that it was not from God.
He made references to occurrences in Malolos, Bulacan, and at the Mountain of Salvation Batulao, Batangas. He characterized these events as merely intended “just to tickle curiosity” and “not something to bring people to conversion, to holiness.”
“Ito ‘yung sabi ni St. John of the Cross na ‘admiratio,’ which has at its base demonic deception to let people focus on the extraordinary instead of the ordinary path to holiness and love of God,” Cabading was quoted as saying.
Talibong flashed another statement from Cabading in the same episode: “So, by that alone, they are not true Marian devotees listening to the Church. They only want to listen to their own. They listen if it pleases them. ‘Pag ‘di sila agree, reject. So, sila ang basis ng truth, hindi ang discernment ng Simbahan.”
‘Not referring to the statue’
In an interview with the Varsitarian, Cabading clarified that although he had mentioned the word “demonic,” he was not referring to the Mediatrix of All Grace statue in Lipa.
“May sinabi akong demonic pero that did not refer to the statue. Sabi ko may possible deception… Kaya kailangan ng discernment kasi may possible deception. And if there is a deception, at ini-insist mo, diyan na magkakaroon ng demonic intrusions,” Cabading told the Varsitarian.
“Discernment is always a practice of the Catholic church when judging extraordinary phenomena,” he added.
Demetriou also cited the 4th National Conference on the Ministry of Spiritual Liberation and Exorcism on Aug. 19 to 23, 2019. Demetriou claimed that Cabading asked leading and open-ended questions to a guest, Fr. Cliff Ermatinger, “with the end view of instigating defect in the already vulnerable image of Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.”
The Lipa apparition
Cabading insisted that the alleged apparition in Lipa was not from God based on the judgment of the Church.
“This is and has always been what we have been teaching the people. However, some take offense at this position of the Church. And they seek to silence the Church and her ministers in this. It is unfortunate they would resort to the secular courts to impede the instruction of the Catholic faithful,” Cabading said in a statement.
Cabading said all his claims about the Lipa apparition were “solidly supported by the Vatican’s decision and the Church’s teachings.”
“The Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican, has decreed in both 1951 and 2015, saying that this (apparition) did not come from God. It is not supernatural,” Cabading told the Varsitarian.
Visionary drank water used to wash feet
Teresa Castillo, who joined the Carmelite convent in Lipa in 1948, claimed that a voice called out to her while walking in the convent’s garden in August 1948. The voice told her to return to the location at 3 p.m. on Sept. 15, 1948.
Castillo followed the instruction of the voice and returned to the location. The voice, which identified itself as “the Mother,” again instructed Castillo to relay messages exclusively with the other sisters in the convent.
Another instruction that the voice gave to Castillo was to wash the feet of her prioress, who, according to the other convent sisters, had a preferential attitude toward Castillo. Castillo was also instructed by the voice to drink the water used to wash the prioress’ feet.
In 1951, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) declared that the events and apparition in the Lipa convent have no supernatural character or origin.
Pope Pius XII confirmed the Congregation’s declaration on March 29, 1951.
The decision was reaffirmed in 2015 by the Congregation to nullify and void the Sept. 15, 2015 decree of then Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles declaring that the Marian phenomenon of Lipa “exhibits supernatural character and is worthy of belief.”
“The matter of the phenomena of Lipa is not subject to the authority of the local Diocesan Bishop (cf. CIC can. 333). Therefore, the decree of Archbishop Arguelles dated 15 September 2015 is null and void,” the Congregation said in its 2015 decree, which Pope Francis confirmed.
‘Detach devotion from Lipa apparition’
On July 9, 2016, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Commission for the Doctrine of Faith issued a pastoral advisory instructing bishops to encourage the faithful to continue their devotion to Mother Mary, Mediatrix of Grace since the belief and practice date back to the fourth century.
However, CBCP said the faithful must be instructed to separate their devotion to Mother Mary, Mediatrix of Grace from the “reported apparitions in Lipa in 1948.”
“Belief in the authenticity of the alleged apparitions in Lipa is not to be fostered. Local Ordinaries are to ensure that no public activity of the Faithful is conducted that would promote this belief, for such activity would be contrary to the definitive and expressed judgment of the Holy Father,” the CBCP said.
“In brief, the belief in and private devotion to our Mother Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces is centuries old and should be fostered as a private devotion. But it must not be based on the alleged Lipa apparitions that the two Popes have already judged as inauthentic.” Nillicent Bautista
