‘Has he forgotten that anyone who breaks God’s commandments is called wicked before His kingdom and is not exempt from God’s judgment and wrath?’
THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has issued a public statement defending Cardinal Jose Antonio Tagle on the persistent issue of sexual abuse by the clergy. Tagle is among the candidates to be the next pope.
It claimed that Tagle, then the Manila Archbishop, issued the “Pastoral Guidelines on Sexual Abuse and Misconduct by the Clergy” in 2019, which, according to the watchdog BishopAccountability.org and the Agence France, is nowhere to be found on the webpages of the Manila archdiocese and the CBCP.
The CBCP also said that in his current full-time position, any allegations or complaints have since fallen under the dioceses headed by either bishops or priests.
There was also no mention of several cases of sexual abuse in the country since 2019 that should have led to sanctions or penalties for erring priests or bishops. There was little doubt that, as Archbishop, Tagle was aware of the numerous incidents of misconduct by the Philippine clergy. Has he forgotten that anyone who breaks God’s commandments is called wicked before His kingdom and is not exempt from God’s judgment and wrath?
We remember some priests being reassigned to other dioceses in distant regions.
Such practice seemed customary in the United States, where it was widely reported in the early 2000s that some 8,000 priests and bishops involved in sexual abuses and misconduct were not held criminally accountable, but instead transferred to other cities or towns.
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His undying loyalty to former President Duterte and the proliferation of his Malasakit centers have propelled re-electionist Sen. Bong Go to the top of election surveys. Of course, no one can discount his huge financial resources.
Many people disregard any moral dilemma over another re-electionist, Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, choosing him among the top five in the senatorial race. It is a tragic flaw in our culture that Filipinos no longer acknowledge character and virtue as crucial factors in the selection of lawmakers and ignore criminal acts and accountability.
As we all know, Dela Rosa was the chief implementer of the brutal drug war of the Duterte administration that led to the cold-blooded killings of more than 20,000 victims. His imminent arrest and detention by the ICC will hopefully compel many people to contend with their moral values.
We remember former Sen. Nikki Coseteng as consistently one of the 12 outstanding senators in the 1990s in polls conducted by numerous survey firms. She was one of the few genuinely progressive senators who zealously stood for human rights, especially for women’s rights and the marginalized sectors, and being fiercely independent, had strongly opposed any US intervention in our domestic, political and security affairs. Former Sen. Coseteng was also one of the loveliest faces that ever graced the halls of the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives. She was initially a Quezon City representative in Congress. She also turned movie actress in the critically-acclaimed “Sa Kuko ng Agila,” which starred Joseph “Erap” Estarda. Ms. Coseteng played an anti-American activist who was leading a movement against the presence of US military bases here.
Her daughter, Kate Galang Coseteng, is carving a name for herself as a notable public servant. She is the 1st nominee of the Kababaihan Party-List. She is a three-term Quezon City councilor after serving for three terms as councilor in Valenzuela, the principal sponsor of the Quezon City University, the PWD Code, and a dialysis center in Quezon City, among other achievements.
