Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Jose Cabantan has warned the faithful against a suspended priest who is still saying Mass, despite being defrocked.
CBCP News said the prelate gave the warning in a memo he issued on June 22 amid reports that Fr. Melvin Clapano is still being invited to officiate Mass in homes and in office blessings.
"Catholics should not knowingly join Masses celebrated by Fr. Melvin Clapano or receive the sacraments from him or invite him to office blessings,” Cabantan said.
The prelate said Clapano has been barred from his priestly duties for “attempting to contract a civil marriage."
Citing church law, Cabantan said, that a cleric who attempts marriage incurs “automatic suspension."
He further stated that a priest who attempts marriage “ipso facto loses any ecclesiastical office he may have."
“There were attempts in the past that he expressed his desire to return to active ministry but he’s impeded due to a latae sententiae suspension, which only the Vatican can lift the penalty,” Cabantan said.
The archbishop also revealed that Clapano recently joined the North American Old Catholic Church in the US, whose members “are not in full communion with the true Roman Catholic Church."
“Therefore it is a schismatic group,” he said.