CBCP on erring priests: So sorry

Amid a scandal on the sexual abuses committed by Catholic priests, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has issued a public apology to the victims of Filipino priests.

"We apologize. We are sorry," Rev. Hernando Co-ronel, CBCP secretary general and spokesman, told a press conference yesterday at the CBCP offices in Intramuros, Manila.

It was the first time the Philippine Catholic episcopacy acknowledged that some Filipino priests have also been accused of and sometimes defrocked for sex-related misdemeanors.

While Coronel claimed the CBCP had no statistics on such cases, he said the cases were not as many or as grave as those reportedly committed in the US.

He cited differences in cases of sexual abuse committed in the US and those in the Philippines.

"In the Philippines, news travels fast. If a priest falls, the bishop acts," he said, apparently referring to the supposedly delayed action taken by American bishops on clerical sexual abuses committed in their dioceses.

"I believe that our bishops and our religious superiors are responding to cases concerning the moral conduct of priests... We believe that these cases represent a few cases only, a minority," he added.

He said there was also a difference in the nature of the offense of the sexually abusive priest.

Coronel noted that while most clerical abuses in the US involve pedophilia, homosexuality and paternity are most frequent cases among erring Filipino priests.

He admitted, however, that there are also similarities between the sanctions imposed by Filipino and American bishops, like re-assigning an offending priests instead of turning him over to the police.

"Minsan may mga behavior na nagre-recur talaga (Sometimes there are behaviors that really recur) because of the tensions and pressures of being a priest. Sometimes, we send them to treatment centers in the US," the monsignor said.

Coronel urged people who have been or are being victimized by reprobate priests to file formal complaints but insisted that these matters be taken up before the priest’s bishop or archbishop.

"This (complaints) should be brought to the bishop. The church has its own canonical or church procedure. Whether criminal or not, we will make a church procedure," Coronel said, stressing, however, that the church would "not stand in the way of justice."

He said the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Clergy has been preparing guidelines and diocesan protocols on handling cases of erring priests. The commission started working on the guidelines and protocols when the Dagupan Archbishop was CBCP president in the mid-1990s.

Incumbent CBCP president and Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo has directed the commission to finish the guidelines by July next year.

"Even without the diocesan protocol, they are acting on it. Archbishop Quevedo has a time frame," he said, noting that although there are priests who are now being trained to study such cases, it still takes some time to cover all the 80 ecclesiastical territories in the country.

He said the dioceses will have to finalize their inputs before the entire church sets its collective protocol but churchmen even act without them.

"Kung meron pumutok na kaso, nagre-reach out kaagad kami sa biktima. (When a case comes up, we immediately reach out to the victim.) We will not stand in the way," he said.

Meanwhile, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Socrates Villegas, spokesman for Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, appealed to the public not to castigate the entire Catholic Church for the mistakes of a few priests.

Villegas noted that about five percent of the clergy are "very good, holy and exemplary priests."

"On the other hand, 1.6 percent or even lower are errant priests. The greater majority which comprises more than 90 percent are struggling hard to be good, praying hard to God and serving quietly their people," Villegas said.