Archbishop Babjak blamed the late pastor for his early departure: If you trusted the paramedics, you could still live! – Topky.sk

Cekan died of coronavirus on Friday, December 10. He succumbed to the infection when he was 42 years old. Subsequently, according to the portal pos.sk a funeral service was held on Monday, December 13, for the deceased Greek Catholic priest in the Church of St. Pius of Pietrelcina in Vranov nad Topľou. The Holy Mass was led by the Archbishop of Prešov, Ján Babjak. The Greek Catholic priest and administrator of the parish in Vranov nad Topľou literally rebuked that he left so soon and if he had been vaccinated, he would probably still be alive.

“One thing I’m sorry about is that you’re leaving us so early. You didn’t trust the paramedics, you couldn’t get vaccinated, and maybe that’s the cause of your death and your early departure. “ he blamed the deceased priest. On the other hand, he thanked him for his service and for everything he did for the church and parish he was in charge of. At the same time, Čekan himself disobeyed the call of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia that all members of the church could be vaccinated and thus set an example for the faithful. Chekan was one of those who could not be vaccinated. And that must have been fatal for him.

In addition to the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia, Pope Francis himself publicly calls for vaccinations. Both sides publicly supported the vaccination and called the vaccine the only way out of the pandemic. However, some pastors chose to ignore these words. Among them is Chekan himself. Several priests and pastors publicly criticize the vaccination, or literally expel people from it. An example is the parish priest of Boleslav, Štefan Kľúčik, who urged believers to become infected with coronavirus rather than being vaccinated. The priest even wrote this to the faithful on parish announcements. Bishop Tomáš Galis of Žilina also dealt with the priest’s proceedings.