Faith must challenge child abuse in Church and State

By Fr. Shay Cullen

The shocking testimonies of 2,300 victim-survivors of childhood physical, psychological and sexual abuse representing 200,000 children that suffered in government care centers and church orphanages and institutions over the past 70 years have just been released in a New Zealand report that took six years to compile.

The investigative report, Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, discovered that more than 200,000 vulnerable people, most of them minors from impoverished communities and indigenous Maori and Pacific Island people living in New Zealand, were taken into institutional care by government and religious institutions and there they were abused and suffered torture, rape and sexual assault.

The heads of schools, institutions, bishops and civil authorities denied all reports of abuse and covered up the crimes for years by transferring abusers to other jobs, schools and parishes. The report found that there was more sexual abuse of children in church-based institutions rather than state care homes.

The foster care system was worse than the institutions, the report says. Foster homes had higher rates of child sexual abuse than in the faith-based or government institutions, the investigation found. Few of the people responsible, torturers and sex offenders, were ever brought to justice because the victims were not believed or were ignored. The church and civil institutions protected the child abusers. They covered up evil crimes against children. In many churches, the Philippines included, cover up and denial of child abuse is the greater crime of all.

In the Philippines, a Unicef report says one in every four children experience child abuse or neglect in their short lifetime.  The Philippines is the hub of online child sexual abuse, too. According to Cameleon Philippines, about 7,000,000 children are sexually abused every year in the Philippines. More than 70 percent of sexually abused children are between 10 and 18 years old. Among those victims, 20 percent are under 6 years old.

Is this the way the Philippines wants to be seen and judged by the international community? New Zealand is suffering severe damage to its reputation by the revelations of church and civil systematic child abuse. That is just the tip of the iceberg of abuse that goes on in society, in homes and also in institutions like the church and schools and unsupervised care homes. It is child abuse that is unseen and unheard.

The Philippine Catholic Church is campaigning to block a law allowing divorce but is silent about the pandemic of child abuse in the church among priests, religious and lay people. New Zealand and other churches have faced up to the shame and clerical crimes against vulnerable children. Besides the few Filipino brave bishops and priests that fight for human rights, most bishops and priests are silent. Is this the silence of consent or indifference?

The Catholic Church in Guam is facing the painful truth and paying for it. Vatican investigators ordered by Pope Francis uncovered in 2019 that as many as 220 child abuse victims, boy scouts, altar boys and students, were sexually abused by at least 35 identified credibly accused priests, teachers and scout masters of the Archdiocese of Agaña. For sure, many more were undetected.

The Vatican investigators of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found that the former archbishop, Anthony Apuron, 73, was guilty of several child sex abuse allegations committed when he was a parish priest. He denied the charges and appealed the verdict but the original guilty verdict was upheld and he received a severe sentence but will not be charged in court.

The archdiocese has refused to release the names of the accused priests and is trying to reach out-of-court settlements with the victims. It is likely to cost US$115M and the archdiocese has declared bankruptcy, according to an AP report. It has to sell its properties to pay the compensation.

This is the main fear for the Philippine hierarchical church represented by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) if the clerical child abuse scandal becomes public and victims fight back for justice. Many priests will go to jail and big compensation must be paid to the victims.

The Philippine hierarchy is leading a campaign against a new law allowing divorce but are silent on child abuse because there are many accused pedophile priests active in dioceses. One bishop called them his “sons.” Many more are hiding out in the Church-funded Tagaytay rest house for clerical child abusers. They are hidden away by bishops from their victims when they should be in jail. The abusers are rightly scared of the millstone that Jesus said should be hung around their necks and they be thrown into the deep sea (Matthew 1-7) and held accountable before the courts.

Can this writer forget the time when his bishop and 23 fellow clergy signed an affidavit and letter that testified and gave support to a convicted Australian pedophile accusing me of having falsely accused him? There are too many pedophiles and their protectors and defenders and too few child defenders among the clergy and bishops.

The People of God have many great and good true Catholics and Christians of all denominations who believe that Jesus of Nazareth taught by word and example and that Christianity is an active way of living and believing in action that goodness, truth, justice and love of neighbour will overcome evil and corruption in society.

These are the true disciples building a society by working together and individually to build a just and loving society. They are humble washers of feet, servants of the poor, friends of Jesus of Nazareth. They do as Jesus did and have the greatest love of giving their lives in service for the poor, the abused, the down-trodden, victims of human rights violations. As Jesus said, “No greater love can anyone have than to give their lives for their friends. I call you my friends, not servants.”

We all need to be “Washers of Feet” as was Jesus of Nazareth, not robed leaders of rites and rituals, pomp and ceremony. Besides, He said (Matthew 18.6), “Whoever accepts a child such as this in my name, accepts me.”

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