Philippine bishops accused of clergy child abuse cover-up

QUEZON CITY (PHILIPPINES)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]

January 29, 2025

By Inday Espina-Varona

84 priests including Filipinos and foreigners who worked in the country have sexually abused minors, says global aggregator

A Massachusetts-based abuse watchdog has released its first-ever database of priests accused of sexual abuse in the Philippines, listing 84 individuals and blaming the local bishops for attempting to cover up most cases.

The watchdog, bishop-accountability.org, released the database at a press conference in Manila on Jan. 29.

At least  34 priests on the list committed the crimes within the country. Others committed these crimes abroad but spent a portion of their priesthood in the Philippines, said the abuse tracker group.

The abuse aggregator site’s co-director Anne Barrett Doyle and database manager Suzy Naujan, who released the database, blamed the bishops for dampening these public scandals by initially suspending accused priests and later reinstating them to ministry.

“Seven priests accused of raping minors are back to full ministry,” Doyle said.

Not all the priests in the database are Filipinos, and some are deceased.Some are Americans shuffled to the Philippines after being charged or convicted of child sexual abuse in the United States, the database said.

Bishops and religious superiors contacted by UCA News did not respond during the filing of the report.

Doyle said they are hopeful about convincing survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and the religious to come out, citing the experiences in countries like the United States, Ireland, and Chile.

One of the priests on the list has been facing charges in court since 2019 of raping a four-year-old girl.

Doyle said their researchers found images on social media of the priest concelebrating Mass with a bishop in December 2024, in the same city where he was charged with the crime. 

Another priest was accused in 2023 of sexual abuse by a 17-year-old woman. A social media post also showed him presiding at Mass in December 2024, Doyle said.Both priests are from the central Philippines, and “their cases are ongoing. They are still on preventive suspension but allowed to celebrate Mass for their own nourishment,” a source from their diocese told UCA News.

Doyle narrated several such cases showing how bishops covered up cases and accepted into ministry even individuals convicted of sex abuse.

‘Heed Pope Francis’

Boyle urged Philippine bishops to follow Pope Francis’ call for conversion in attitude towards sexual abuse. The papal call for “zero tolerance [for sexual abuse] does not exist in the Philippine church,” she stressed, noting that bishops have defended priests, kept secrets, and failed to publish any list of abusers. 

Cardinal Pablo David, the bishop of Kalookan and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), announced that the CBCP has established an Office for the Safeguarding of Minors.

“Our mandate from Rome is to take the issue of accountability very seriously, especially those related to alleged abuse cases involving priests,” David told reporters in a message.David emphasized that the Church’s canon law makes bishops responsible for acting promptly on complaints of abuse against priests incardinated to them or religious superiors if a priest belongs to a congregation.

If alleged abuse concerns minors and vulnerable adults, the bishop is required to inform the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission Office for the Safeguarding of Minors, he said.

If complainants feel a bishop is not taking action, they can also bring their case to the Papal Nuncio, the pope’s representative in a country.

https://www.ucanews.com/news/philippine-bishops-accused-of-clergy-child-abuse-cover-up/107723