God’s will and Father Suarez

Without doubt, Fr. Fernando Suarez is an instrument of the Lord who has healed thousands of people afflicted with terminal ailments. But beyond the criticism, the question is: Does he continue to retain his healing power and to be an instrument of the Lord?

If indeed he flies off to watch the French Open, stays often in five-star hotels, and has a “luxurious” lifestyle, as some people say, the question remains: Is his healing power intact? If it is, can we safely say that he has the Lord’s blessing to continue healing in spite of his perceived faults? Will his healing power gradually wane? We do not know God’s will. He works in mysterious ways.

For sure, Father Suarez has entered the devil’s den, which may eventually undermine his healing power. If your hand scandalizes you, cut if off. Proximity to temptation is its own folly. If he is guilty of indulging in a “luxurious” lifestyle, it may finally be his downfall. Father Suarez’s vision of a global healing center, akin to Fatima or Medjugorje, with a monument to Mary that will rival New York’s Statue of Liberty, is an awesome, commendable dream. But if it starts to undermine his apostolate, then is it not better to cut off the hand that scandalizes? A simple healing center is better than none.

The core issue is the people around Father Suarez, not his “luxurious” lifestyle. (But this does not exempt him from culpability.) Strike one: When the original Filipino group was able to raise funds for him in Canada, the infighting started. He was forced to abandon the pilgrim center there, and came home to the Philippines. Strike two: When a new group was able to raise funds for Montemaria in Batangas, there again was the infighting. That plan was eventually scuttled.

Strike three is Alfonso in Cavite, near Tagaytay. Newspaper reports suggest that the real cause was a lack of trust in some members of his inner circle. There is reason for San Miguel Corp. to suspect something amiss and withdraw its donation of land, especially because it is an open secret that Father Suarez’s Mary Mother of the Poor Foundation has collected millions upon millions of pesos. In other words, at every turn, from Canada to Montemaria to Alfonso, it is the money through which the devil has made inroads—which has somehow undermined Father Suarez’s healing ministry.

Father Suarez’s weakness is his helplessness to intervene within his own inner circle. He has very little administrative talent. He leaves the administrative work to his inner circle. He is too preoccupied with healing to be bothered. But if he has no trusted one to check the inner circle (although many in it are good people), if he does not know what is happening in his own foundation, then we can discern the shrewd devil’s hand. Is the money slowly being spent while there is no real effort to construct the monument? Is the money intact, as the foundation says?

During my short stint with Father Suarez, there was a great preoccupation with raising funds in the millions of pesos because of his vision of a global healing center. At one point in the fund-raising frenzy, a check for P300,000 would fly nonchalantly across the dinner table. There was once a healing session with dinner costing P10,000 a plate. It was a dizzying money hurricane.

Once, I arranged for a healing Mass for the squatters of Pasay City. Father Suarez agreed.

Everything was all set but at the last minute, someone in his inner circle cancelled it in favor of a healing Mass for a business tycoon where more money was expected to flow in. I objected, but there was no reply. That was when I bolted his ministry.

In contrast, Sr. Raquel Reodica, RVM, who has also healed thousands of patients but is less in the media limelight, fears fund-raising. When she was offered land in Zambales, she moved quickly to raise funds to build a healing center. Then, suddenly, she realized that the devil was working. Her attention was slowly being diverted from healing to raising funds. She dropped the plan like a hot potato.

A global healing center costing millions of dollars and a monument higher than the Statue of Liberty can be a distraction to the task of healing the world, considering how shrewd the devil is. I think something modest, not grandiose, would be better, but this is just my opinion. A global healing center and a monument to Mary make up Father Suarez’s vision. Ultimately, the question is what really is God’s will, and whether the devil is succeeding in suppressing it through inroads among men.

Father Suarez has other problems. He does not listen to bishops and ignores Church protocol. He seems to be a rebel healer. He has alienated himself from officials of the Church hierarchy, both in Canada and in the Philippines. Yet his healing powers seem to be intact. He is still God-sent and an instrument of healing and salvation. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Bernie V. Lopez ([email protected]) has written political commentary for the last 20 years. He was in Fr. Fernando Suarez’s inner circle for a brief period during which he filmed a healing prayer (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UP3LHBgtIc). He is also in the inner circle of Sr. Raquel Reodica, RVM.