CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 6 Aug) — Church officials in Ozamiz City closed indefinitely the 19th century-built St. John the Baptist parish in the municipality of Jimenez in Misamis Occidental after a female vlogger appeared on video that went viral on social media doing an act that looked like she was spitting into a holy water font.
Ozamiz Archbishop Martin Jumoad said the church shall remain closed until further notice as “a sign of penance and reparation” and called the act of spitting into a holy water font “a grave act of sacrilege” against a sacred object.
Jumoad said the closure of the Baroque style church is a liturgical and pastoral response to foster repentance and communal reparation.
“The reopening of the church will only be permitted after appropriate acts of penance are observed by the faithful, including the participation in the Holy Hour and confession, as well as after due pastoral assessment,” Jumoad said in the pastoral decree he signed.
“A serious warning is hereby extended to the individual responsible: The act of profaning sacred objects, such as the holy water font, constitutes grave sin and desecration … and incurs not only ecclesiastical penalties but endangers the sinner’s communion with the Church and God,” Jumoad said.
He added that “immediate confession and sincere repentance are required to restore one’s standing in the community of faith.”
Jumoad led the padlocking of the main door of the church as hundreds of parishioners watched last Tuesday. Later, two priests put a huge “X” of white tape across the main door.
The archbishop directed the parishioners to attend the Holy Hour of Adoration and a service of solemn confessions at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
The alleged vlogger, a certain Christine Medalla, denied on her Facebook account that she spat on the holy water font inside the parish church.
Although Medalla said she removed the video, some netizens were able to save and repost it.
The video showed Medalla, who was strongly backlit and out of focus, going to the holy water font and instead of dipping her fingers, she leaned forward and appeared to be doing an act of spitting on the holy water font.
“Why should I spit when there were people following me?” Medalla said in the vernacular.
Weeping, Medalla said she has deleted the video last Sunday after somebody told her that it would not be good if shown on social media.
She said she would like to apologize to all Catholics and parishioners of Jimenez for any harm she might have done but maintained she did not spit on the holy water font.
She promised to go to the church and explain her side, and to not anymore create content inside churches.
The St. John the Baptist parish church was built by the Augustinians between 1862 and 1863 and was declared as a national cultural treasure in 2001. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
