MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 31 January) – A high official of the Roman Catholic Church has assured support to efforts to hold its leaders accountable, including for cases of sexual abuse by the clergy, in keeping with Pope Francis’ call for “greater Synodality in the Church.”
“The Church, being a human institution, is not exempt from sin and corruption. Admittedly, lack of accountability compromises our moral and spiritual authority. After the Church-related abuse scandals that happened in Europe and America the universal Church has proactively made efforts to address the issue squarely in the Church and create structures that will guarantee that our institutions are kept as safe spaces for minors and vulnerable adults,” Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, Bishop of Kalookan and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said in a statement published on cbcpnews.net Friday.
David’s statement followed a report Wednesday by the US-based BishopAccountability.org identifying at least 82 priests and religious brothers associated with the country who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors.
The database includes Filipino priests accused of abuse both in the Philippines and abroad and foreign priests who served in the country, some of whom are already dead.
At least nine of these clergymen, seven of whom were accused of abusing minors outside the Philippines, the US in particular, had been assigned in various dioceses in Mindanao. The database includes the late Bishop Dinualdo D. Gutierrez of the Diocese of Marbel.
David said that if a bishop cannot discipline his erring priests or hold them accountable, he may end up being disciplined himself by the Pope upon the recommendation of the Dicastery of Bishops.
He said that after the abuse scandals that rocked the Church in Europe and America for the past several decades now “Pope Francis has been more resolute in coming up with stricter policies that would make sure that all our Church institutions are guaranteed to be safe spaces, especially for minors and vulnerable adults.”
An Associated Press report quoted Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of BishopAccountability.org, as saying that the long silence of bishops in the Philippines encouraged such sexual assaults by members of the clergy. Doyle asked Philippine prosecutors to investigate church officials, who failed to report abuses.
The same report quoted David as saying that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has set up an office to safeguard minors and vulnerable adults and report complaints to the Vatican.
The CBCP head admitted “we’re not always successful in this regard and we need the help and participation of our lay people, including our professional journalists who are our allies in the quest for truth and fact-checking and the battle against disinformation. Let’s keep the bridges open among ourselves.” (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)
