Philippine Catholic priests are appealing to over 100 pilgrims who
attended last month's World Youth Day in Spain to come home, fearing
they used the festival as a ruse to live abroad illegally.
Pope Benedict XVI brought the event in
Madrid to a close on Aug 21, but fewer than 300 of the 427 Filipino
delegates have returned, said Father Noel Osial, head of Manila's Don
Bosco Catholic congregation.
'There are really some who are using this World Youth
Day as an avenue (for illegal immigration) because they have relatives
there already,' the rector told AFP.
'It is immoral because that is not what we
intended.'
Father Osial said that a number of Filipino pilgrims had also
used the World Youth Day festivals in Germany in 2005 and Canada in
2002 to trick the Catholic church into helping them get visas abroad and
then stay overseas illegally.