‘Shaken Catholic Church’

Two days after the sexual harassment complaint against Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. hogged newspaper headlines on June 8, around 200 priests of the Archdiocese of Manila were summoned to an emergency meeting at the Villa San Miguel of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.

Some priests, considered too radical for a conservative institution like the Catholic Church, were not notified but they nevertheless showed up. One of the "gate-crashers" was Msgr. Nico Bautista, a member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

Bautista described the atmosphere as "mournful." He said the gloom lifted somewhat after the assembly was informed that Bacani was elated over the show of support from every sector "and can’t wait to come back."

Auxiliary Bishop Socrates Villegas, Sin’s right-hand man, presided over the meeting. The cardinal was not around.

"I thought we were there to address the problem and find a solution," said Bautista. "We ended up doing something else."

Henrietta de Villa, former ambassador to the Vatican and the first to speak up, updated the priests on Bacani, saying he stayed in her place a few days before leaving for Kansas, United States, on June 9. Msgr. Jesus Romulo Rañada and Fr. Catalino Arevalo of Ateneo also took the floor.

Tension in the villa rose again when Auxiliary Bishop Teodoro Buhain, district bishop and parish priest of the Basilica of the Black Nazarene, stood up and spoke. Crying "frame-up," he predicted that, after Bacani, he would be "next."

Buhain referred to a rumor that he had begotten a child by "CS," a close female friend who was an employee of Radio Veritas, which Buhain headed. He said his friend had indeed given birth but that the child was conceived through artificial insemination and that he was not the father. He declared he was ready to undergo DNA testing to prove his innocence.

The bishop’s revelation caught many by surprise, especially priests who had no inkling of the rumor. His openness was a far cry from how the Catholic Church handled the two recent scandals that rocked the institution, some of whose members are still in the dark up to now.

Dismissed as rumors

It took the Church almost two years to act on the rumors about an illicit affair that involved Bishop Crisostomo Yalung.

Some parishioners in Makati City were the first to allege that Yalung had a kept woman. They reported the matter to the Papal Nuncio, Sin, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), but the hierarchy dismissed their allegation.

For a time, only a select few knew about the case. Makati parishioners saw Yalung’s transfer to Antipolo as a ploy to take the heat off their parish priest. But this did not prevent them from pursuing their own investigation.

The Church leadership made its move only when the rumors persisted even after Yalung’s transfer. Eventually, the Nuncio was convinced and forced Yalung to quit the diocese of Antipolo. A press statement gave no reason for Yalung’s resignation, although a Church official, in response to a reporter’s question, cited health reasons. The real reason, however, was kept from the public, including members of the clergy.

As in Yalung’s case, the Church ignored rumors of Bacani’s alleged liaisons with women, even after some parishioners, in unsigned letters, informed the CBCP and the Nuncio about it.

A long-time Church lawyer told Newsbreak that such issues only went around the Catholic Church community and no effort was made to confront them. The higher-ups "should have at least looked into the rumors," the lawyer said.

When finally confronted with the "truth," the Catholic Church hierarchy tends to protect one of its own. The Church, the lawyer said, often dissuades aggrieved people from filing a formal complaint.

Zeny Recidoro, program coordinator of the Department of Health’s Women’s and Children’s Protection Unit Program, had a first-hand experience in this regard. She recounted to Newsbreak how the CBCP discouraged her from filing a formal complaint against a priest on behalf of a victim and assured her that they would do something about their erring member.

Long-delayed guidelines

The Catholic Church’s response to formal complaints could probably be traced to the absence of protocol or pastoral guidelines on sexual offenses. Up to now, it has no clear-cut procedure for dealing with sex scandals.

There are indications that the Catholic Church has been dragging its feet in coming out with the protocol.

Asked about the status of the protocol, Msgr. Jose Bernardo, in a previous interview with Newsbreak, said the guidelines were still being polished. He said consultations on the guidelines started last year, and these were to have been adopted in January this year. As things stand now, the protocol is expected to be adopted this July when the CBCP permanent council convenes.

Msgr. Hernando Coronel disclosed that the protocol would tackle "moral cases and issues affecting the clergy," specifically issues involving pedophile-priests, priest-fathers, and homosexual priests.

He said the protocol would include sanctions on erring members of the clergy and possible assistance to victims. Newsbreak learned that the CBCP had commissioned a law firm to study the implications of sex abuse cases in the US.

The CBCP’s apparent foot-dragging contrasts with the stance taken by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ACBC) and the US National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) on sex scandals involving priests.

The ACBC came out with its protocol as early as 1996 and drew up a revised version in 2000. The NCCB, on the other hand, adopted its Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People shortly after the series of sex scandals hit the headlines in the US.

CBCP insiders said the bishops were taking their time in coming out with the protocol so as to avoid loopholes, adding that there were two divergent opinions on the sanctions to be imposed.

The US and the Australian guidelines impose strict penalties on offenders; first-time violators are permanently defrocked and stripped of their clerical status.

Some CBCP members feel the sanctions contained in the US and Australian protocols are too punitive. Others are uneasy about the matter of confidentiality, which the two protocols lifted. Both protocols state that every case should be disclosed to the public, except when so desired otherwise by the offended party.

Damage control

While Buhain may have unwittingly taken the lead in creating a more transparent Catholic Church — although opening himself to further scrutiny — there are no indications that the hierarchy is about to change its secretive demeanor.

Learning that Bautista had allowed himself to be interviewed, Villegas quickly reminded him of the confidentiality of the proceedings at the villa. Two days later, Bautista received a letter from Sin ordering him to keep his opinions to himself.

The Catholic Church’s crisis management team worked overtime to downplay the sexual harassment reports, deliberately floating "theories" to muddle the issue.

A Catholic Church insider told Newsbreak that newspaper stories on the succession angle — that Bacani was among those considered to replace Sin, who will retire in August — were leaked from within the Catholic Church. The source said neither Bacani nor Villegas was being considered to succeed Sin as archbishop of Manila.

Adding confusion to the issue were text messages that "a well-financed group with a lot of political clout and involved in coups and destabilization is suspect in all-out campaign to discredit Catholic Church — stumbling block to power."

At the emergency meeting in the villa, an empty sheet of bond paper was circulated among the clergy for their signatures, to be attached to an expression for support for Bacani. The priests were told that the wording of the expression of support would follow, Bautista said.

Bautista deplored that there was no effort to find out the condition of the "victim." "Our obligation should be with the powerless," he said.

Assessing his fellow priests’ reaction at the meeting, Bautista said that the Catholic Church hierarchy might lose yet another chance to redeem itself.

Perhaps, the local Catholic Church can take the cue from Australian bishops. In their protocol statement, they said: "Abuse of both children and adults by Catholic Church personnel has done great harm to individuals and to the whole Catholic Church. Despite this, it can become an opportunity to create a better Catholic Church, but only if the response given by the leaders and all the members of the Catholic Church is humble, honest, and thoroughly Christian."