Iloilo Priest Rejects Child’s Christening Over “Pope Francis” Name
02/01/2015 – Iloilo City | An unnamed Catholic priest from Miag-ao Iloilo is under-fire after he denied the baptism of Pope Francis Matahum, a one-month old child named after the Catholic supreme leader, Pope Francis.
Report said, the priest (who asked reporters not to disclose his name in order to avoid repercussions), told the father of the child, Juanito Matahum to correct the child’s first name on logbook because it was mistakenly spelled. Matahum misunderstood the priest and was disappointed. He thought the priest did not permit him to name his newborn child after the Pope.
“The name reads Poop Francis Matahum instead of Pope Francis,” Perfecto Claro, a church staff told reporters.
The priest ordered Matahum to leave the church unless he corrects the spelling of his child on logbook, but the latter was not convinced and gone mad at the church staff.
Matahum, who failed to control his temper, went home with his whole family, but later apologized publicly when family members told him the real issue.
Pope Francis Matahum was christened the following week after the said misunderstanding between the father and the priest was cleared.
There were dozens of new-born children named after Pope Francis last January and this is the first instance that the Pope’s name resulted to some controversial issues.
“It was an insult to the Pope and the whole Catholic church to misspell the Papal name, especially if the used word is unpleasant and unwelcoming,” the said priest told reporters on Friday.
As a punishment to his ridiculous mistake, the priest asked Matahum to buy a new log-book and copy the whole logbook content. He also told Matahum to burn the logbook with wrong spelling name after he is done copying the content.
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/Fanny Jalacjac/ Panay Press
