Quito, Ecuador, Jun 1, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In a letter published Wednesday, Archbishop Raul Vela of Quito, Ecuador, explained to the faithful that the decision to send two priests back to Spain conforms to Canon Law and that “a parish is not a political party, a union or an NGO. Its essence and its methods are different.”
Just a few days after the two Spanish priests—who were engaged in political and social activity at the expense of the parish’s sacramental life—organized parishioners to unite in defying the archbishop’s request for their return to Spain, Archbishop Vela and the Presbyteral council of Quito said the actions by the priests had “deeply wounded the communion of our Church.”
The two priests, Father Miguel Olmedo and Father Jose Luis Molina, both originally from the Diocese of Jerez in Spain, were working at the parish of Santa Maria del Inti.
“We had preferred to remain respectfully silent, limiting ourselves to clarifications requested by some of the media. Today we feel it is necessary to inform the Catholic faithful of what has occurred and to ask them that in truth, fraternity and prayer, we might strengthen unity as Jesus commanded us: ‘That they may all be one’,” the archbishop’s letter noted.