MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Rappler [Pasig, Manila, Philippines]
January 30, 2025
By Paterno R. Esmaquel II
[Includes a brief video, also available on YouTube.]
A US-based watchdog launched a database on Wednesday, January 29, exposing dozens of Filipino clergymen accused of sex abuse.
The database by BishopAccountability.org lists “82 priests and brothers with ties to the Philippines who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors.”
BishopAccountability.org is a research group founded in 2003 that maintains the largest online library of sex abuse cases involving Catholic priests. The database launched on Wednesday is the first publicly known list of Philippine-related cases. It is now available and accessible to the public.
The new database includes the following:
- “Filipino priests accused of sexually abusing minors in the Philippines”
- “Filipino priests who served part of their priesthood in the Philippines but who are accused of sexually abusing minors while working in the US”
- “Accused clergy from other countries – specifically, the United States, Ireland, and Australia – who served part of their priesthood in the Philippines”
“The theme today really is about the deep sense of entitlement by Philippine bishops to withhold information from the public,” said BishopAccountability.org co-director Anne Barrett Doyle in a press conference at the University Hotel of the University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City.
“Philippine bishops feel entitled to their silence,” Doyle said. “These are men who fear nothing.”
She criticized Catholic priests for withholding information about sexual violence, defending accused priests, and feeling entitled to return them to ministry “without humbly accounting for why they feel the priests pose no risks.”
“They don’t walk the walk when it comes to sexual abuse allegations. They keep the information secret, and there is no such thing as secret accountability,” said Doyle.
Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the Vatican has mandated Filipino bishops to take abuse issues seriously.
The CBCP Office for the Safeguarding of Minors is headed by Archbishop Florentino Lavarias of San Fernando, Pampanga, and a team of bishops and experts.
“Our mandate from Rome is to take the issue of accountability very seriously, especially those related to alleged abuse cases involving priests. Every diocese is now required by Rome to establish its own Office for the Safeguarding of Minors and Vulnerable Adults and should have a point person who can formally receive complaints,” said David in a statement to reporters, reacting to BishopAccountability.org.
Suzanne Nauman, database manager and senior researcher of BishopAccountability.org, said their group is not criticizing the Catholic faith itself.
“Can I say there’s a big difference between one’s faith and the institution? I mean, they’re not the same, right?” said Nauman in Wednesday’s press conference.
“We never want someone to lose their faith or feel conflicted about that because of their practicing within this particular institution. It’s possible to perhaps make the institution better by helping them to address this issue,” she added.