BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THE GOOD news is that justice sometimes works for the sake of the children- abandoned, raped, exploited and abused as in the case of Maria reported here- but not often enough.
Church and State are frequently slow and silent about the abuse of children and action is frequently lacking in bringing the abusers to justice.
Denial, cover-up, intimidation of victims and witnesses, and pay-offs to parents and victims are the methods employed by suspects or their enablers to stop complaints from reaching the prosecutor or the courts.
When barangay officials arrange a payoff between abusers and parents and take a cut for themselves, the law is violated and the child victims are thrown aside to suffer in silence.
This criminal behavior of child abuse and cover-up of the crimes is a total and outright contradiction and denial of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and a repudiation of Christianity. Pedophile priests that abuse children and bishops that send them on vacations are to be challenged and brought to justice.
Pope Francis and the Vatican child protection team have said priests must be formally accused when credible evidence is presented and they be brought to the civil prosecutors. The Church cannot ignore the child protection law of the people, it must obey it.
A recent Vatican guideline says that even reports of child sexual abuse allegedly committed by a cleric that are anonymous must be considered worthy of investigation. “The anonymity of the source should not automatically lead to the report being considered false, especially if it is accompanied with documentation that attests to the likelihood of a delict, a (crime) being committed.” All these laws and instructions for bishops and priests and laypeople are available on the Vatican website Vatican.va.
Thanks to good police work in Batanes, a wanted suspect, fugitive Rizalito “Regen/Regie” Javier, charged with child abuse in Cavite and with two arrest warrants against him, is now jailed in Batanes.
He is a close friend of Fr. Rolly Olango, parish priest of Itbayat, who assigned him to organize and train the parish altar boys knowing he is wanted on child abuse charges. He was likely acting as a pimp, grooming and preparing the most vulnerable boys for abuse.
Serious allegations of child sexual abuse of several altar boys by clergy are now emerging and their parents are complaining that their children are showing psychological distress consistent with sexual abuse by priests.
The parishioners are writing a letter to 60-year-old Bishop Juan Danilo Bangayan Ulep, D.D., Bishop-Prelate of Batanes. Local people suspect there are many more pedophile priests in the diocese and the parents are encouraging the altar boys to come forward. Batanes is a small island of 18 to 20 thousand inhabitants in the extreme north sea of the Philippines reached only by turbo prop planes from Manila.
The victims/survivors can be helped recover and triumph in life when they are given the intervention and rescue of a government social worker and help at a private therapeutic shelter that gives protection, support, understanding, affirmation and Emotional Release Therapy. Then, the child or youth victim/survivor can recover and be empowered, emotionally strengthened and can live with self-confidence and testify against his or her abusers. (To be continued)/PN
