Amid news of sexual misconduct by two local bishops, the Archbishop of Lima says chastity is impossible without prayer and that the priesthood is a treasure that should be safeguarded with fidelity.
“The priest who does not pray cannot live chastity, which is a gift from God. He should live obedience and poverty,” Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani said during a local priestly ordination on Oct. 12. “In these days one has to be more and more careful, because we are like sheep among the wolves.”
The cardinal made his remarks as the cases of two former bishops who engaged in sexual misconduct have come to light. Gabino Miranda, who was auxiliary bishop of Ayacucho, has been stripped of the clerical state. Guillermo Abanto, who was bishop of the military diocese, has acknowledged fathering a child. Cardinal Cipriani said the priesthood “is a treasure because it is not something that belongs to you or to me. The Church is not ours, it is Jesus Christ’s and these days sometimes we don’t realize what it means to administer these treasures.” A priest should be “a man of prayer, a sincere man, who goes to confession if he falls. If he watches after his community life he will not have problems.”
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