About 200 priests of the Catholic Church in the Philippines applied for a permit to carry weapons. This step caused four cases of attacks on priests that occurred in the course of this year, in which three priests were killed, reports the Week.
After the introduction in the Philippines the new legislation in 2014, members of the professions with a high level of risk excluded from standard process of obtaining a permit to carry weapons. Such “risky” occupations include priests and other clergy, rabbis, imams, lawyers, journalists, cashiers, Bank employees, doctors, nurses and some categories of businessmen.
The people who work in these areas no longer have to provide evidence that they are in serious danger and self-defense require weapons. They only need to pass the test of addiction control mental state and to prove that they were not criminal incidents.
Among the bids submitted in the course of this year, 188 came from the priests and 58 from the clergy of the Catholic Church. These claims relate only to permits to carry weapons, those who already have and different from the license to purchase weapons.
The controversy surrounding the priests who carry weapons, arose after June 10, was killed by a priest of the Richmond Nilo, who at that time was preparing for the celebration of the Liturgy. Four days before he was wounded by a weapon the Reverend ray Urmeneta. Earlier this year, the Philippines had been killed the priests mark Ventura and Marcelito the Paese.
On the one hand, some priests amid rising violence in the country expressing a desire to carry weapons for self-defense, while others disagree with this position and believe that priests should not be allowed to carry weapons.
“Sacrifice and suffering are part of being a priest,” said the Bishop Ruperto Santos of the diocese of Balagny. “Our vocation is to carry the cross and even crucified,” — said the Prelate.
However, as reported by the Catholic Herald, the decision on whether is it lawful for priests to carry weapons, in the end, must take the diocesan bishops of the Philippines.