BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
WITH THE exceptions, most families, citizens, government officials, and agency heads including many bishops in the Philippines and other churches have an uncaring attitude, indifference, and a culture of apathy surrounding the sexual abuse of children. That is because, besides the few eight great bishops, they have many clerical abusers whom they hide away from the law and accountability and are not active defenders of a child or human rights. Shame on them.
The clerical abusers are still being allowed to travel abroad go to another parish or diocese or retire in the comfort of a church-supported rest house, all to avoid the shame, embarrassment, and damage to the reputation of the diocesan institutional church.
Just a few brave courageous bishops and priests, among the 90 active and 40 honorary bishops and other clerics, are outspoken against child abuse and stand for human rights. The rest are allegedly silent. The abusers go free and the crimes continue. Only a few clerical child abusers have faced a prosecutor. Not a single cleric has been convicted of child abuse in the Philippines in the past 40 years or more, correct me if I am wrong. The abusers walk free and the allegedly the child is thrown aside, her parents paid off.
Children suffer without help because of apathy and because there are very few professional DSWD-accredited child care therapeutic homes for the protection, healing, and empowerment of child victims/survivors with legal assistance like the Preda home.
There are thousands of hospitals, clinics, and health care centers for every kind of illness but there are practically no clinics, shelters, or therapy homes for the healing and recovery, and legal assistance for child sexual abuse victims.
The reason is that society denies and ignores the pandemic of abuse and the medical profession is primarily a privatized, expensive, money-making business. The majority of child sexual abuse victims/survivors are very poor children, with no money to be made there. Most psychology graduates work for human resources departments in big corporations, no child help centers for them.
The rich hide away their victims successfully. The scandal and shame on the family would be too much, the child is left to endure the abuse.
In the Philippines and elsewhere, thousands more are victims of sexual slavery through human trafficking and they, too, are allowed to be groomed, recruited, and lured over the internet and taken by pimps and traffickers into the sex business.
This human slavery is operated in brothels and sex bars and hotels that all have government permits and licenses to operate. Most operate with impunity protected by the local politicians and corrupt police.
The rights and dignity of children were again named the top priority of the Catholic Church. The defenders of children’s rights on the Papal Commission for the Protection of Minors were given new positions of highest responsibility and powers in the Roman Curia, the governing body of the Catholic Church.
The commission is to investigate clerical child abuse anywhere. Pope Francis has declared that every bishop, priest, and layperson has to make child protection a top priority and to care for, protect and listen and respond positively to children and their needs. The question is, will they? (preda.org)/PN
