In this January 27, 2019 photo, four boys play by the shore at a beach resort in Talustusan on Biliran Island in the central Philippines. Since December 2018, the small village has been rocked by controversy after about 20 boys and men, including these four, accused their Catholic parish priest Father Pius Hendricks of years of alleged sexual abuse.
He was just 12 – a new altar boy from a family of tenant farmers anxious for the $1 or so he’d get for serving at Mass – when he says Hendricks first took him into the bathroom of Talustusan’s little rectory and sexually assaulted him. “It’s a culture of cover-up, a culture of silence, a culture of self-protection,” said the Rev. Shay Cullen, an Irish priest who has spent decades in the Philippines and works with victims of child sexual abuse. “It’s a silent consent to the abuse of children.”
For nearly two decades, the Philippine church has vowed to confront a looming shadow of clergy abuse. The church’s influence remains vast here, even as it has seen its power chipped away in recent years, weakened by the spread of evangelical missionaries and attacks by the nation’s populist president, Rodrigo Duterte.
The 23-year-old from Talustusan said he might not have come forward without encouragement from an American visitor to the village, the boyfriend of a woman related to an accuser. The American was shocked at the gifts the priest had doled out to him and other local boys and began to ask probing questions.
The local case against the priest would have stalled if U.S. authorities hadn’t started their inquiry, pressuring Philippine authorities to act, according to an investigator involved in the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still underway. His branch, the Province of St. John the Baptist, declined comment on his work, saying in a statement that it was “fully cooperating with the authorities.”
“All of us knew about Pius and his boys,” said a former Catholic clergyman who worked with Hendricks for years, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the church. “Ever since I was young I heard the stories, that he would touch altar boys,” said a longtime village resident, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing backlash from her neighbors.“I was not really surprised, because he was always with small boys,” said Edna Pitao-Honor. “We were friends, actually. But that ends when he’s facing prosecution.”
AP Never use religion as a basis for morality. Philippines, sana we can all put aside our faith and religions and recognize this man as the monster he is.
AP Marami pang Pilipinong Pari na manyakis
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