Navy Chaplain reinstated and placed at the Lisbon Naval Base
Chaplain Licínio Luís, exonerated from the Navy, criticizes the position taken by Admiral Gouveia e Melo on the behavior of two marines, was reinstated and will be placed at the Lisbon Naval Base.
“The reinstatement of chaplain Licínio Luís was announced, who will be placed at the Lisbon Naval Base, where he will perform his duties”, reads a note from the Navy.
The announcement was made during a visit by the Navy’s Chief of Staff (CEMA), Admiral Gouveia e Melo, to the Pinheiro da Cruz camp, Grândola, where the marines are carrying out a military exercise.
On the occasion, a Seventh-day open-air mass “in homage to PSP agent Fábio Guerraby the Bishop of the Armed Forces, D. Rui Valério, and by the Chief Chaplain of the Navy, Captain of the Sea and War Ilídio Costa”, a ceremony that was performed with the presence of all the Vice-Admirals of the Navy.
The bio agent Guerra died due to the “severe memory of the past 21st of March” suffered in the sequence of previous years, which was the target of a nightclub, the first two being outside of the alleged, now in prison, are marines.
The chaplain Licínio Luís had been exonerated following public criticism of Gouveia e Meloafter CEMA delivered a harsh intervention with the Marine Corps, declaring that it does not want “troublemakers” in the Navy, nor military personnel “without values”.
On Wednesday, a source from the Navy told Lusa that chaplain Licínio Luís “was exonerated in view of the position he took and the terms in which he expressed it”, but that he is “deeply sorry” and “has already apologized personally in audience and retracted his publicly.”
For these reasons, the Armada Chief of Staff was “thinking and still thinking about what to do” and “reflecting a lot on the matter”, with the aim of “being ethical and fair”.
The chaplain’s criticisms were published on Tuesday by the newspaper Expresso, which reported that Licínio Luís made a publication on the social network Facebook appealing that Gouveia e Melo “wait for justice” before prosecuting the two marines detained in pre-trial detention and ask if the admiral “never went to the night” and if he “never had a few drinks”.