A.M. Costa Rica: "Controversial U.S. priest not yet dismissed "
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A priest from the United States who has become a controversial figure here technically still is a Roman Catholic priest but his religious order is trying to dismiss him.

The Rev. David Kalert is the provincial superior of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate for the United States. He told a reporter that the dismissal process has been going on for several months and that the priest, Alfredo Prado, 73, does not have permission from the Oblates to be in Costa Rica.

"I contacted the bishop there a couple of weeks ago to alert him that (Prado) was present," Kalert said.

The provincial superior was interviewed by a reporter for the San Antonio, Texas, Express-News who relayed the information here. Kalert would not discuss the priest’s performance there, and it was unclear exactly what dismissal might mean: expulsion from the order or termination of being a priest.

To date there are no known charges leveled against Prado in Texas.

Prado is involved with a group of religious believers — some say cult — who insist that the Virgin Mary is making multiple visitations near Grecia.

The priest was summoned to the Costa Rican immigration authorities last week and told that because he is a tourist he should not practice priestly duties.

The controversy centers on the Santuario de la Virgen Reina y Señora de Todo lo Creado in San Isidro de Grecia, an agricultural and retirement community west of here. The Sanctuary of the Virgin, Queen and Lady of all Creation, does not have the support of the local Roman Catholic parish nor of the Diocese of the Province of Alajuela where the community is located.

But the believers are strong in their faith. The words of the Virgin are passed through one young man named Delgado.
The night of Sept. 4 some 10 men beat up a young priest who is the official spokesman for the national conference of bishops, and the victim blamed the believers. The battered priest has been the media figure issuing statements disassociating the church from the visitations.
Meanwhile, Prado, who has hired a lawyer, claims he is getting death threats. The lawyer denies sanctuary members administered the beating to the younger priest at the man’s home in Escazú..

The case has gone so far that the lawyer, Gerardo Machado Ramírez, has filed a plea with the Costa Rican Supreme Court alleging violation of religious rights.

Prado first came to Costa Rica in January to witness the visitations. The sanctuary was a low-level religious dispute until Casa Alianza, a child welfare organization, called attention to Prado and claimed he had been expelled from the Catholic Church in Texas, in part, because of allegations of abuse of minors.

The organization, a branch of the New York Covenant House, said it filed a formal criminal complaint charging the priest with usurpation of authority and fraud, all based on the allegation that he no longer was a priest but was pretending to be one.

A day later, Prado, told the Spanish-language press that he was a victim of revenge in the United States for his complaints about witchcraft and rampant homosexuality in the Seminary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in San Antonio.

El Diario Extra newspaper said the priest said he saw a container with human blood in the residence for priests in San Antonio.

Prado, who is blind and with a bad heart, carries a certificate he says is signed by Patrick F. Flores, bishop of San Antonio, that gives him the right to say Mass in private, which is what he does.

The priest, a U.S. native of Mexican parents, will try to obtain an immigration status that will let him stay longer than the 90 days usually granted to North American tourists.