AMID the sexual abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church in recent weeks, a former bishop of Tagbilaran said he would not have ordained an American to the priesthood had he known the latter had been earlier convicted of sexual misconduct. American Fr. Joseph Skelton Jr. is now serving as associate pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Calape town in Bohol. He is set to be transferred to another parish within the diocese next month.
Leopoldo Tumulak served as bishop of the Tagbilaran diocese from November 1992 until his appointment as military ordinariate in January 2005.
He said he was then not aware Skelton was convicted of sexual misconduct in 1988 while the latter was a seminarian in Detroit, Michigan.
"Had I known of his conviction, I would not have ordained him," he told the CBCPNews, official news agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
CBCPNews said Skelton has refused media interviews. It also said
Skelton is being transferred for difficulty in delivering homilies in far-flung villages in Cebuano.
Tumulak said Skelton was introduced to him by his predecessor, the late Bishop Felix Sanchez Zafra, "simply as a seminarian wanting to become a priest and was a former member of a religious congregation."
Asked if priests who have committed crimes still deserve a chance to serve the Church, Tumulak said the matter is "better left to the wisdom of the bishop who knows and loves his priests."
Tagbilaran Bishop Leonardo Medroso said he finds nothing wrong with Skelton being ordained.
"He was convicted before he became a priest and served his penalty of being under probation for three years," said the expert on Canon Law, who added Skelton’s case was a "misdemeanor."
Recent sex scandals involving the clergy have reached the Vatican, with Pope Benedict XVI approving the transfer of a priest accused of molesting boys in 1980.The pope was then archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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