Bishop, senator protected child witnesses, 2

BY FR. SHAY CULLEN

THERE is much reform to be done in the institutional church to inspire leaders to have real faith and actively defend human rights.

The courageous bishops and priests that stood against the tyranny of the tyrant include Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani, Father Robert Reyes, La Salle Brother Armin Luistro, Jesuit priest Albert Alejo and Divine Word priest Flaviano Villanueva, besides many others.

The first act of justice the bishops could do is to put aside the love of golden robes and bring the clerical child sex abusers to justice, believe and act on the words of Jesus and stop coddling the abusers that commit heinous crimes against children. They suffer greatly. Watch the screaming and anger release of victims and you will see the pain they endure when they let it out in therapy.

To coddle and protect abusers is being an accessory to crimes against children by arranging payoff to parents to prevent testimony in court. Housing pedophile priests in luxury rest houses is a contradiction of the words of Jesus of Nazareth who said in Matthew 18: 6-7), “Let a millstone be tied around their neck and they be thrown into the depth of the sea.” Accountability is needed in every case with protection, support, therapy and help for the child victims.

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination has declared the Philippines a hotbed of rights violations and human dignity. Gross racism and discrimination is perpetrated against the poor in the Philippines and we must challenge more bishops and priests to stand and protest against it. Strong action is needed, not just blah blah statements, but mobilization of the communities to act for justice because as Saint James has written in the Gospel, “Faith without action is dead.”

The report made it clear that there were many violations. “Reports of enforced disappearances, killings, violence, threats, intimidation, harassment, reprisals and in particular “red-tagging” faced by human rights defenders and leaders of ethno-religious, ethno-linguistic and indigenous communities…”.

There is a challenge from a world body for the church leaders if they have the faith and find a prophetic voice to campaign for the enactment of the Human Rights Defenders Bill that is before congress, that would be a significant evangelical “Faith in Action” movement. Every parish could have all true Christians sign a petition for their congressional representatives to pass that law. As I have written previously, more than 114 of the total 270 defenders of land and environment, who were murdered between 2012 and 2020, were indigenous leaders trying to protect their way of life and lands.

Some brave bishops have spoken out to condemn the killings and the “systematic abductions” of defenders of the ecology and lands.

Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos said in a courageous statement on Sept. 24 that the abductions “point to state forces as the culprits.” He demanded that the “perpetrators, including military and police officers, as well as officials of state institutions… involved in abductions and kidnappings, must be held accountable.” We need more to be true Christians and be ready to give themselves in defending the rights of all victims and oppressed people./PN