CV NEWS FEED // Cardinal José Luis Lacunza, the bishop of the Diocese of David in Panama who last week mysteriously disappeared and then reappeared, apologized at the end of Sunday Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral in David.
According to local press, the Cardinal said “I want to offer you my apology and ask for your forgiveness for the trouble I caused you in recent days.”
“I know you had a bad time,” he said. “Some shed abundant tears. I don’t deserve them, I tell you sincerely, but I appreciate them. And above all, I appreciate your prayers.”
“It was a stupid mischief [“trastada” in Spanish]. The fact is I didn’t do them when I was 15 years old and now I’ve done it when I am going to turn 80. How outrageous! The older you are, the more stupid,” he added, without explaining his disappearance.
“I thank you for all the love and all the prayers on my behalf. A thousand apologies and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your concern,” he said.
As reported by CatholicVote, the cardinal disappeared on Tuesday, January 30, until Thursday, February 1, when he was found by Panama’s National Police only a few miles West of David.
Lacunza, a Spanish-born Panamanian friar of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, is the bishop of David. The diocese is located in Chiriquí, the Westernmost part of the small country, on the border with Costa Rica.
Pope Francis elevated Lacunza to the rank of cardinal in February 2015 as part of the pontiff’s policy of creating cardinals on the “peripheries.” Lacunza is the first Panamanian and first member of his order (established in 1588) to be named a cardinal.
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