Two kids by a priest and he’s out?
Reporting on the Clergy
Two kids by a priest and he’s out?
PACHICO A. SEARES
First published in SunStar
Aug. 4, 2013. Adapted
to CJJ, Nov. 27, 2025
A SUN.STAR news story Sunday said that under a behavior protocol for Filipino clergy a priest is allowed to stay in the ministry after he expresses repentance.
How about a priest who has more than one child? Is he kicked out? The story doesn’t say except that it’s “a sign he should reconsider his vocation.”
Church action on the repeated offense is not clear: whether the priest leaves, is thrown out, or just recites prayers of penance.
The Episcopal Commission on Clergy Formation of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) approved the guide. Consultations were made with CBCP members and all other bishops, said Cebu archbishop emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, commission head at the time.
It’s not clear what applies to priests who exceed the “one-child quota” although Vidal “admitted” it was a revised version since the first version was disapproved by Vatican. Is it the revised version that allows the one serious error but rejects its repetition or what?
Secrecy
But, heavens, there’s an “allowance” of one child for each priest. I don’t suppose it means the priest’s woman can live in the convent and hang diapers on its clothesline.
That will be pushing the father’s luck.
Beyond child #1, we don’t know. Vagueness about the “no-no” and secrecy over church rules aren’t helping their enforcement among the clergy and understanding by the laity.
Book writers (e.g., Aries Rufo in “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Money, and Politics in Philippine Catholic Church”) are given more excuse for not getting it right–and churchgoers the reason to be further confused. 
