By Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (left) addresses selected members of the local press, while his wife Mildred watches, shortly after their arrival at Norman Manley International Airport yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
ALTHOUGH JEAN-BERTRAND Aristide has been stripped of his position as president of Haiti, no one can take away his priesthood. That is according to a fundamental Roman Catholic priesthood tenet.
"Once a priest, always a priest. There is something with the priesthood, once you have been ordained to the priesthood that cannot change but you can be laicised, which means that you cannot exercise priestly duties," said Monsignor Michael Pallud who is based in Mandeville, Manchester.
Mr. Aristide, 50, who was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1982, is no longer a practising priest and can never return to the fold.
He was laicised from the Salesian order in 1988 for his political involvement, which was labelled as "incitement to hatred and violence" and viewed as being out of line with his role as a clergyman.
In addition, he has since wed Mildred Trouillot, which is forbidden under the laws governing the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Father Etuale Lealofi of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Montego Bay concurred with Monsignor Pallud.
"No one can take away his priesthood, but he cannot function as a priest. Even if he goes to hell, he will still be a priest," he said.
While in Jamaica on his two-month visit, the clergymen both said no special treatment would be extended to the former Haitian president by the Roman Catholic Church.
"I suppose he will be treated like any other catholic coming into another catholic community," said Father Lealofi.
