A watchdog group on Wednesday accused the Catholic Church within the Philippines of a tradition of impunity, saying it had discovered scores of monks who had been accused of sexually abusing youngsters and that many stay in lively ministry.
The group, Bishop Accountability, mentioned it had identified 82 priests and brothers with hyperlinks to the Philippines who had been accused of abuse in current a long time. It mentioned it compiled the checklist from respected media studies, court docket data, church paperwork and different public sources.
The lads had been native monks or these from overseas who had been accused of abuse within the Philippines, or Filipino clerics who served at house earlier than dealing with accusations abroad. However not one priest has been convicted of sexual abuse within the Philippines, the group mentioned, citing Bishop Buenaventura Famadico. The nation has the third-highest variety of Catholics on the planet, about 85 million, after Brazil and Mexico.
It was the most recent signal that the Catholic Church’s international abuse scandal continues to be ricocheting, this time in Asia, a area that the Vatican is eyeing for progress. Pope Francis has ordered clergy to report allegations of abuse and cover-up, saying each diocese should have a system that permits the general public to submit studies simply.
“He despatched them forth to essentially change issues up,” mentioned Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of Bishop Accountability. “None of that is evident within the Philippines.”
She added that her group’s checklist nearly actually didn’t cowl all abuse as a result of it typically goes unreported. The group was established in Boston in 2003, and has compiled comparable lists of monks publicly accused of abuse in america, Argentina, Chile and Eire.
At a information convention in Quezon Metropolis, Ms. Doyle talked about six monks and displayed their footage.
One in all them was the Rev. Jose Belcina, who was charged by prosecutors within the metropolis of Cebu in 2006 with rape and little one abuse. The church eliminated him from his parish and made him bear “a strategy of spirituality,” Ms. Doyle mentioned.
However when the police tried to arrest Father Belcina they may not discover him. Based on Ms. Doyle’s group, when a journalist requested the spokesman of the Archdiocese of Cebu about Father Belcina’s location, he responded that he was not the priest’s custodian.
Father Belcina denied the fees, which had been later dropped by the accuser over causes of “reconciliation and peace.” The priest was then reassigned to a different parish within the province in 2008. He stays in lively ministry.
The Archdiocese of Cebu didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the standing of the instances of Belcina and different monks listed by Bishop Accountability.
“We hear about these instances as a result of the victims had been brave sufficient to go to regulation enforcement. The church isn’t the supply of knowledge. By no means,” Ms. Doyle mentioned.
The Catholic Bishops Convention of the Philippines mentioned it has established the Workplace for the Safeguarding of Minors in response to Rome’s mandate. Each diocese can also be now required to determine its personal Workplace for the Safeguarding of Minors and Susceptible Adults, which is below the bishops’ supervision.
“The C.B.C.P. has no direct authority as a convention to conduct such investigations. As a convention of bishops, we merely construct a consensus amongst ourselves about widespread insurance policies to be adopted,” mentioned its president, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David.
He added that solely Rome, represented by the Nuncio, has direct disciplinary authority over particular person bishops.
“So long as the issue is contained inside the Church, there is no such thing as a justice,” Ms. Doyle mentioned. “The Church can not self-police with regards to abuse.”