‘Healing priest’ courts controversy after death
FR. Fernando Suarez, known as the “healing priest,”could have been the most sought after clergy if he were still alive today.
Suarez, who died last February 4 or three days before his 53rd birthday, gained popularity upon his return to the country from Winnepg, Canada because of his reported miraculous ability to heal the sick.
His “healing Masses” in various parishes all over the country attracted the faithful as news of his miraculous healing power spread.
But along with what many believed was Suarez’s noble intention to heal the sick and help the needy was a wave of controversies, including serious allegations that he sexually abused minors and used his stature to make money, among others.
The charges prompted Suarez to temporarily close his ministry, which sidelined him for quite some time until the Vatican, through the National Tribunal of Appeals of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), allowed him to resume his work.
Suarez was preparing for his return to active priesthood at the time of his unexpected demise.
The healing priest was born in Barrio Butong, Taal, Batangas in 1967. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Adamson University, but decided instead to go to Winnepeg in 1995 to pursue his dream of becoming a Roman Catholic priest.
Suarez was aware of his healing gift even before he became a priest.
At the age of 18, Suarez prayed over a paralyzed 60-year-old woman beggar outside the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila and made her walk.
Suarez joined the congregation of the Companion of the Cross and was ordained in 2002 at age 35.
As a seminarian in Canada, Suarez revived a woman who had been declared dead for eight hours. This started Suarez’s
healing ministry, which he continued upon his return to the Philippines in 2008.
Suarez’s popularity as a healing priest had attracted the attention of many of his peers in the Catholic Church.
One of them was the late Malolos, Bulacan bishop Jose Oliveros, who complained that Suarez was not following a Vatican rule on healing activities under the Church issued by the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (CDF), which was signed by Pope Benedict 16th when he was still a cardinal.
The bishop said Suarez violated paragraph 4 of section 2 of the Instruction on Healing Activities of the CDF in the Vatican, which required priest healers to first ask for an “explicit permission” from the concerned bishop before conducting healing Masses.
Suarez was then forced to cancel succeeding healing Masses that were scheduled in Oliveros’ diocese.
Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, former CBCP vice president, had said Oliveros’ complaint was “a message for Fr. Suarez that it’s good to continue the healing Mass, but with proper procedures.”
On Suarez’s healing power, Ledesma said the possibility of healing was always there and that the CBCP would not be against the Masses, but stressed that “because of experiences in the past, we have to be very careful that people are properly given instruction not to anticipate instant miracles.”
Caloocan Bishop Emeritus Deogracias Iniguez Jr., former chairman of the CBCP Public Affairs Office, expressed belief in Suarez’s healing power, saying “there are few people who have been given [a] special gift of healing, and Father Suarez is one of them.”
Iniguez noted, however, that the Church was “watcful” and might only release its ruling on Suarez’s miraculous healing gift if he would be named a candidate for sainthood.
The prelate added that the Church did not discourage, but was even tolerant of the faithful who attended healing Masses and believed in the ability of Suarez to heal the sick.