US v. CANETE
G.R. No. L-11612, June 21, 1918
Facts:
Two informations were filed
in the trial court charging the fifty persons named in each information with
the crime of libel. The publication upon which the informations are based
consists of a charge in writing signed by appellants and their co-defendants in
the trial court, and addressed to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, in
which Father Acebedo, at that time a parish priest of which the defendants are
residents, is accused of maladministration, and misappropriation of the funds
and property of the church under his charge, drunkenness, taking indecent
liberties of the women of his congregation, illicit relations with the
complainant. Timotea Camposano.
The charges and petition for
the removal of Father Acebedo were taken by the appellant, Cañete to Manila.
The Catholic Archbishop of Manila rendered a decision for Father
Acebedo’s expulsion from membership as
church member.
Issue:
WON the decisions of the church tribunals can be reviewed by the Court.
Ruling:
No.
It is the established
doctrine of the American courts that in matters purely ecclesiastical the
decisions of the proper church tribunals are conclusive upon the civil
tribunals. A church member who is expelled from membership by the church
authorities, or a priest or minister who is by them deprived of his sacred
office, is without remedy in the civil courts, which will not inquire into the
correctness of decisions of the ecclesiastical tribunals. The right of such
ecclesiastical tribunals to try members offending against the canons of conduct
established by the church being thus recognized it is reasonable that their
decisions should be privileged, however derogatory they may be to the
reputation of the persons affected.
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