The Philippines is the third-largest Roman Catholic nation in the world, and public discussions of sexual assaults by members of the clergy, who are revered especially in rural regions, has long been generally muted. None of the 82 members of the clergy, including seven bishops, who have been included in the new online database on clergy sexual abuses by the group BishopAccountability. The database featured their faces, names and details of their alleged sexual assaults on minors, some of which dated back more than two decades ago.
The nonprofit said that it had also set up such online databases on Catholic clergy abuses in the U. Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of BishopAccountability. She asked Philippine prosecutors to investigate church officials, who failed to report abuses.
They feel entitled to withhold information about sexual violence toward minors. Secrecy equals complicity. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, a Philippine church leader, said that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has set up an office to safeguard minors and vulnerable adults and report complaints to the Vatican.
Some of the members of the clergy included in the database have been cleared of charges and allowed to return to church work and ministry, regaining close access to potential victims, the nonprofit, which has been tracking the sexual abuse crisis haunting the Roman Catholic Church since the group's founding in , said with alarm. Gemma Hickey, a victim of clergy sexual abuse who spoke at the news conference in Manila, said that victims suffer long after they have been assaulted.
Many of the priests who have abused us get to carry on with their lives. Log in Pay Now Subscribe. Toggle navigation Main menu. TV Guide. Read the e-edition. Web Extras. US watchdog launches database on Catholic priests accused of sex abuse of minors in the Philippines. Posted Wednesday, January 29, am. Other items that may interest you. Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions.
