Diocese of Baguio warns public of group of men in white cassocks, asking for donations

BAGUIO CITY – Baguio was visited last weekend by a group of men in white cassocks.

“Andaming guwapong pari sa Baguio (There are so many handsome priests in Baguio),” said one post on Facebook, which the user deleted later.

They were all over Session Road on Sunday, June 2, and people thought they were cosplayers as the city’s main road was closed again that day for promenaders.

The next day, they were given an audience with Mayor Benjamin Magalong in his office at City Hall.

They called themselves Filipino Katoliko and they said they came from Davao de Oro.

The group said that they were in Baguio “to raise funds for the construction of our new church building” in Surigao del Sur.

“In this connection, we are knocking at your kind and benevolent heart to share with us your blessings through VOLUNTARY DONATION to suffice the needs and to purchase the materials needed fro our Church building construction/renovation and office furniture, fixtures, and equipment that can help us enhance our Christian Education on Just Peace and Love for equality regardless of race, beliefs,and culture for salvation of mankind and to achieve continually serving God and people,” the letter signed by a Most Rev. Pedro P. Fenis Jr., their head bishop.

A day later, the Diocese of Baguio released their statement: “There is a group of men in white robes (in white clergy cassocks) under the name ‘FILIPINO KATOLIKO’ moving around the city asking for financial support (donation) from individuals, business establishments, and private and government offices. Lay Faithful are asking whether it is a Roman Catholic Group. NO. The group is not affiliated to any Diocese or Religious Congregation or Institute of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.”

The nearby Diocese of La Trinidad also followed suit with a similar statement.

But on the Facebook page of the Baguio City PIO, the men in white cassocks already went to the main barangays in the city to solicit donations.

After Baguio, they reportedly went to Pangasinan.

Before that, they came from Sorsogon where the diocese there also issued a statement disowning the group. – Rappler.com