MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 29 January) — The US-based BishopAccountability.org has published the names of 82 priests and brothers—including nine who had been assigned in Mindanao, a bishop among them—with ties to the Philippines who have been publicly accused of abusing minors.
The abuse tracking group said that little has been done to hold to account Filipino priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors in the Philippines, Filipino priests who served in the Philippines but who are accused of the same crime while working in the US, and foreign priests who served part of their ministry in the Philippines.
Of those who had been assigned to various dioceses in Mindanao, seven were accused of abusing minors outside the Philippines, the US in particular. The database includes the late Bishop Dinualdo D. Gutierrez of the Diocese of Marbel.
Gutierrez, Bishop of Marbel from 1982-2018 and who died in 2019, was accused of sexually abusing a minor child parishioner serving as an altar boy from 1969 to 1971 when Gutierrez was a visiting priest in St. Francis de Sales of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The sex abuse lawsuit, which was filed against the Diocese of Brooklyn on 16 February 2020, the year after Gutierrez’s death, was settled in 2022.
As Bishop of Marbel, Gutierrez was known as a staunch human rights and environmental advocate.
Also accused of sexually abusing minors was Rev. Rex Mansmann, an American and founder and long-time director of the Santa Cruz Mission in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. In 1991, he allegedly raped a 12-year-old Tboli girl.
Regional Trial Court Judge Cristeto Dinopol of Surallah, South Cotabato, acquitted Mansmann in a ruling that was promulgated 8 July 1994.
Dinopol said the prosecution presented “weak evidence,” the girl showed “no fear during her testimony” and “even appeared to have been rehearsed,” and her use of “strong English slang words” to describe her experience was beyond her capacity “to learn by herself.”
The judge said this helped persuade him that the rape charges were “instigated by people who were interested in taking control of the Tboli people and other tribal people in the Lake Sebu area.”
Mansmann was dismissed by his superiors in the Passionists for disobeying their order not to return to the Philippines. The priest was in the US for medical treatment when the rape charges were filed, and returned to the Philippines to face his accusers.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines had not yet issued any statement regarding the issue on its website cbcpnews.net.
In September 2023, Pope Francis expelled Filipino priest Pio Aclon of the Diocese of Borongan for sexual abuse involving minors. The diocese circular about Aclon’s dismissal did not provide details about the priest.
Earlier, in 2022, the Pope assured the Catholic Church will continue implementing measures against sexual abuse by priests, even if there may be reluctance or pushback in some places.
“Church started zero tolerance slowly and moved forward. And I think the direction taken on this is irreversible,” the pontiff said.
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 Cardinal Pablo Virgilio 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.
“Our mandate from Rome is to take the issue of accountability very seriously, especially those related to alleged abuse cases involving priests,” David said.
The publication of the database was timed with the holding of a press conference by BishopAccountability.org in Quezon City.
The group, however, clarified that the data is generally based on reports published by “reputable news sources in the media, publicly filed court documents, church announcements and other public sources.”
“Unless a source expressly reports that an individual has been convicted of a criminal offense or found liable for a civil claim, the reports contained in the database are mere allegations and this database does not state or imply that individuals facing allegations are guilty of a crime or liable for a civil claim,” it said.
“If BishopAccountability.org discovers facts establishing that any information appearing in the database is inaccurate, we will promptly take appropriate action, including but not limited to revising, correcting, or withdrawing the information,” it added. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)
