{"id":42230,"date":"2025-01-29T06:33:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T11:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/catholic-church-in-the-philippines-accused-of-impunity-over-priest-abuse\/29\/01\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T06:33:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T11:33:33","slug":"catholic-church-in-the-philippines-accused-of-impunity-over-priest-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/catholic-church-in-the-philippines-accused-of-impunity-over-priest-abuse\/29\/01\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Church in the Philippines Accused of Impunity Over Priest Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A watchdog group on Wednesday accused the Catholic Church in the Philippines of a culture of impunity, saying it had found scores of priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children and that many remain in active ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group, Bishop Accountability, said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bishop-accountability.org\/philippine-database\/#Belcina\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">it had identified 82 priests and brothers<\/a> with links to the Philippines who had been accused of abuse in recent decades. It said it compiled the list from reputable media reports, court records, church documents and other public sources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The men were local priests or those from abroad who were accused of abuse in the Philippines, or Filipino clerics who served at home before facing accusations overseas. But not one priest has been convicted of sexual abuse in the Philippines, the group said, citing Bishop Buenaventura Famadico. The country has the third-highest number of Catholics in the world, about 85 million, after Brazil and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was the latest sign that the Catholic Church\u2019s global abuse scandal is still ricocheting, this time in Asia, a region that the Vatican is eyeing for growth. Pope Francis has ordered clergy to report allegations of abuse and cover-up, saying every diocese must have a system that allows the public to submit reports easily.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe sent them forth to really change things up,\u201d said Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of Bishop Accountability. \u201cNone of this is evident in the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She added that her group\u2019s list almost certainly did not cover all abuse because it often goes unreported. The group was established in Boston in 2003, and has compiled similar lists of priests publicly accused of abuse in the United States, Argentina, Chile and Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At a news conference in Quezon City, Ms. Doyle talked about six priests and displayed their pictures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of them was the Rev. Jose Belcina, who was charged by prosecutors in the city of Cebu in 2006 with rape and child abuse. The church removed him from his parish and made him undergo \u201ca process of spirituality,\u201d Ms. Doyle said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But when the police tried to arrest Father Belcina they could not find him. According to Ms. Doyle\u2019s group, when a journalist asked the spokesman of the Archdiocese of Cebu about Father Belcina\u2019s location, he responded that he was not the priest\u2019s custodian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Father Belcina denied the charges, which were later dropped by the accuser over reasons of \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmanetwork.com\/news\/topstories\/regions\/26314\/19-year-old-drops-rape-charge-vs-priest\/story\/#goog_rewarded\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reconciliation and peace.<\/a>\u201d The priest was then reassigned to another parish in the province in 2008. He remains in active ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Archdiocese of Cebu did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the cases of Belcina and other priests listed by Bishop Accountability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe hear about these cases because the victims were courageous enough to go to law enforcement. The church is never the source of information. Never,\u201d Ms. Doyle said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said it has established the Office for the Safeguarding of Minors in response to Rome\u2019s mandate. Every diocese is also now required to establish its own Office for the Safeguarding of Minors and Vulnerable Adults, which is under the bishops\u2019 supervision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe C.B.C.P. has no direct authority as a conference to conduct such investigations. As a conference of bishops, we merely build a consensus among ourselves about common policies to be adopted,\u201d said its president, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He added that only Rome, represented by the Nuncio, has direct disciplinary authority over individual bishops.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAs long as the problem is contained within the Church, there is no justice,\u201d Ms. Doyle said. \u201cThe Church cannot self-police when it comes to abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/29\/world\/asia\/philippines-catholic-priests-abuse.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A watchdog group on Wednesday accused the Catholic Church in the Philippines of a culture of impunity, saying it had found scores<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/catholic-church-in-the-philippines-accused-of-impunity-over-priest-abuse\/29\/01\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}