They alert a false priest who charges by officia funerals in Bilbao

The Diocese of Bilbao has warned that a person outside the Catholic Church has offered religious responsibilities in Bizkaia’s tanatories to perform the accompaniment in the duel posing as a Franciscan priest. The event, advanced by the SER chain, has been warned to the tanatories to communicate the facts to the families that require this service. Since the Diocese of Bilbao they report that they have put the information in the hands of their legal services, without being able to determine that the facts are constituting a criminal illicit “by the difficulty in cataloging them as religious intrusion” or as a crime against religious freedom.

Through a video hung on the website of the Diocese of Bilbao, the Vicar General, Kerman López, has made some points on the service offered in the tanatories since 2017. In this way, he explained that “the Church insists on properly accompanying the people and families who are in a situation of mourning, and offers the parishes as a habitual community space for celebration of funerals”. In addition, it has a pastoral accompaniment in the tanatories, a diocesan service that starts from the application of the families or people who are in this situation of grief and as a complementary service that is carried out in the parishes.

According to the service, it is formed by “four people with a stable presence in the tanatories who request their services and four other voluntary people reinforce the group, at specific times.” “All of them formed pastorally to carry out the accompaniment in the duel and with the bishop’s entrustment,” López said.

For these services, considered “ecclesiastical rates” charge 100 euros that are paid to the diocese by the tanatories. “The ecclesiastical province of Burgos, to which the Diocese of Bilbao belongs, updated in 2023 the ecclesiastical rates, indicating 100 euros for these services, which are destined to favor the evangelizing action of the diocese,” he clarified.

For his part, the alleged scammer has denied what happened to the chain Ser and has affirmed: “What I do is what I have to do.” He has refused to make more statements, but maintains the thesis that he is a “priest” of the order founded by San Francisco de Asís.