No word from Bactol!

Easter Greetings to our readers of the MBPH Blogs! May the Risen Christ grow in your hearts….

Sorry for not writing, all of us have been so very busy. There was a MBPH Brother meeting in Seattle in the month of March. Interesting conversations!

There has been so much travel - so little time, with so much to do…

We are still waiting for Bishop Bactol to do a formal denial of the charges we have placed. In Brother Steve’s sworn statement.

Canon Law states:

Can. 1368 A person who commits perjury while asserting or promising something before ecclesiastical authority is to be punished with a just penalty. Can. 1369 A person who in a public show or speech, in published writing, or in other uses of the instruments of social communication utters blasphemy, gravely injures good morals, expresses insults, or excites hatred or contempt against religion or the Church is to be punished with a just penalty.

And again it says: THE CRIME OF FALSEHOOD (Cann. 1390 - 1391)

Can. 1390 §1. A person who falsely denounces before an ecclesiastical superior a confessor for the delict mentioned in Can. 1387 incurs a latae sententiae interdict and, if he is a cleric, also a suspension.
§2. A person who offers an ecclesiastical superior any other calumnious denunciation of a delict or who otherwise injures the good reputation of another can be punished with a just penalty, not excluding a censure.
§3. A calumniator can also be forced to make suitable reparation.
Can. 1391 The following can be punished with a just penalty according to the gravity of the delict:
1/ a person who produces a false public ecclesiastical document, who changes, destroys, or conceals an authentic one, or who uses a false or altered one;
2/ a person who uses another false or altered document in an ecclesiastical matter;
3/ a person who asserts a falsehood in a public ecclesiastical document.

But according to ABS-CBN, “Bactol will not go any further and charge Brother Steve” with offenses against the Church. The reason to us is easy: Bactol would have to defend himself before Church authorities. As Brother Steve said “ I have and will continue to stand behind my sworn statement which was sworn and witnessed under penalty of Church Law before a diocesan bishop".


We challenge Most Rev. Filomeno G. Bactol, Bishop of Naval to charge Brother Steve with offenses against Church Law or resign as Bishop of the Diocese of Naval.

Reminder of Canon Law:

Can. 401 §2 A diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office.