In this Feb. 19, 2019 photo, Philippine National Police, National Capital Region Police Office agents escort Catholic priest Father Pius Hendricks to be served five additional arrest warrants at the Regional Special Operations Unit at Camp Bagong Diwa in suburban Taguig, east of Manila, Philippines.Last Updated Monday, September 9, 2019 10:29AM EDT
His accusations ignited a scandal that would shake the village and reveal much about how allegations of sex crimes by priests are handled in one of the world's most Catholic countries. Hendricks' arrest was a sudden fall for a priest who had presided over this community for nearly four decades. He rebuilt Talustusan's chapel and installed rooftop loudspeakers to summon parishioners to Mass. He pressed officials to pave the village road. He drove the sick to the hospital, and paid school fees for poor children. Many here will still tell you how much he did.
In extracts of the conversation heard by the AP, Hendricks laments the passing of those happy days, and admits to an unspecified "mistake on my part." Until about 2013, for example, the church's own guidelines insisted bishops did not need to report sexually abusive priests to police, saying they had "a relationship of trust analogous to that between father and son." Media reports and legal action "adds to the pain" in cases of sexual abuse, Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle told the Catholic news site UCAN in 2012. In Asian cultures, he said, it is often better for such cases to be handled quietly, inside the church.
Prosecutions of accused priests are exceedingly rare here, and convictions are rarer. "No priest in the Philippines has ever been convicted" of child sexual abuse, Bishop Buenaventura Famadico, who oversees a diocese south of Manila, told the Catholic newspaper La Croix last year.By comparison, the group BishopAccountability.org says that since 1990 more than 400 priests have been convicted in the U.S. on child sexual abuse charges.
Even then, the case may not have gone anywhere without intervention by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The agency started its own probe of Hendricks under a statute that allows the U.S. government to prosecute child sexual abuse by American citizens anywhere in the world. His branch, the Province of St. John the Baptist, declined comment on his work, saying in a statement that it was "fully co-operating with the authorities."
And they found another one. Maybe it's time to allow married priests again and reverse the archaic 11th century ideas. Most of the apostles were married.
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