PHILIPPINES
Manila Times
Fr. Shay Cullen
IT must be one of the most heinous crimes of the century, with little exaggeration, and one which went undetected by Filipino police until Dutch Internet investigators found abhorrent and revolting child pornography of Filipino children being sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered on videos on the computer of a Dutch national.
Police investigator Attorney Janet Francisco officer in charge of the National Bureau of Investigation, said the videos were so “hateful, disgusting, and painful to watch the babies being tortured, and sexually assaulted and listening to their cries could haunt you forever” she told a national newspaper.
This terrible litany of crimes against children with the help of Filipino women who recruit, traffic and abduct children as young as one year old is surely just one crime of many. There are hundreds if not thousands of such crimes un-detected, under-reported and unknown.
They are being committed against the Filipinos by Filipinos and foreign nationals like the Australian Peter Gerard Scully, accused of these crimes mentioned above and soon to be reported by 60 Minutes Australia, Ch.9.
These terrible videos are being financed by an international syndicate and distributed around the world. Many pedophiles buy them for large sums of money.
The abusers and criminals choose the Philippines to make child pornography and “snuff” videos because the rule of law is practically non-existent here when it comes to child protection and conviction of abusers. Take for example the 2009 anti-child pornography law. …
The Church is to be held accountable also as the authorities have never turned over a clerical child sex abuser to the civil authorities. Never has a priest sex abuser been convicted. The bishops, who represent the management of the Church, should be held to account for they simply ship off child-abuser priests to dioceses abroad in some cases.
When they abuse abroad and are investigated they rush back to a hideout the Philippines. International law enforcers have asked me to help locate some of these.
They destroy the lives of the children and bring disgrace on the good honest clergy and the entire population of Catholics and the Church itself. Why are a few allowed to get away with such crimes condemned by Jesus in no uncertain terms in the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 18.
The answer may be that some misguided Church leaders have not had the courage and faith to stand by the victims and get them healing, therapy and justice and bring the perpetrators to civil justice.
Its time that the people of God and the morally upright clergy and religious start to speak out and point out the abusers in their ranks. Pope Francis has himself shown the way.
He heard about clergy who abused altar boys in Spain. He himself called up the victims first to pledge help and support. Then he called up the bishop and demanded the accused be turned over to the police for investigation and trial.
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