Church has right to offer sanctuary to aggrieved, says former official

THE Catholic Church will always come to the rescue of the innocent, aggrieved and those who have less in life if needed under its “right to sanctuary", a former head of the influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said on Sunday.

“The Church has this [policy of] right to sanctuary. The Church receives those who ask for help which they believe are innocent, aggrieved, unjustly accused, threatened, who mostly are also poor and have less in life and don’t have the capacity to protect themselves,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz, former CBCP president, told The Manila Times.