‘… there are pedophile priests, some of them high-ranking cardinals themselves, and the Catholic Church has been shown to have done what it could, many times, to hide these clergymen and try to avoid legal consequences.’
ONE mining operation is irresponsible and that makes all mining operations irresponsible.
That seems to be the constant logic of many anti-mining advocates, who are quick to condemn the whole mining industry due to the sins of a few operations. Indeed, there are mining operations around the country that operate under questionable circumstances, including small-scale miners who are not subjected to the scrutiny that the Mining Act of the Philippines imposes on large-scale operations. And that’s simply because small-scale operations are supposed to be regulated and monitored by the local government units that issue their permits, and not by the Mines and GeoSciences Bureau (MGB) and the DENR, who are not part of their permitting process.
But these are nuances that anti-mining advocates simply gloss over in their eagerness to demonize a whole industry for whatever purposes it may serve them.
It is, I argue, a dangerous logic, using a broad brush to tar and feather a whole industry, dangerous because it can easily be used against the very individuals or groups that mouth it.
Take the clergy, for example.
When clergymen in different parts of the country organize protests against the mining industry, arguing that mining is bad and should be stopped, citing instances of accidents and disasters and all, what they are doing is opening up, irresponsibly, a Pandora’s Box of logic that can easily be turned on them.
So, if one irresponsible miner makes all miners irresponsible and justifies the closure of all mining operations, I guess one pedophile priest makes all priests pedophiles (including the Pope) and justifies the arrest of every clergyman and the closure of every church, seminary, and all boys’ schools.
Yes?
Because there are pedophile priests, some of them high-ranking cardinals themselves, and the Catholic Church has been shown to have done what it could, many times, to hide these clergymen and try to avoid legal consequences. In fact, a report by the Catholic Church in the US issued in 2004 revealed that over the last 50 years, over 4,000 priests had been subjected to allegations of child sex abuse. More, the movie Spotlight based on the reporting of the Boston Globe is all about “widespread and systemic child sex abuse in Boston by Catholic priests.” And that’s only Boston.
How about George Pell, the disgraced Cardinal from Sydney, Australia? (Pell, by the way, was an anti-abortion stalwart who described abortion as a “worse moral scandal” than sex abuse in the church. Kaya naman pala…)
And that’s only Boston and Sydney.
How about here?
To be fair, there have been no sex abuse scandals committed by priests in the Philippines that have come to light. May I repeat this last part: that have come to light.
Then again maybe our priests are made of sterner stuff?
Hahahahaha.
But the logic still applies. If you have priests and bishops and even cardinals of the Church who have been engaged in “widespread and systemic child sex abuse” for years, which the institution has tried to hide also for years, then it is only fair to apply the same “if one, then all” logic to the clergy, yes?
Everyone has to act responsibly. This applies to companies doing business in the Philippines that have been given a social license to operate. But it also applies to citizens, especially to so-called activists who, just because of their “passion,” shouldn’t be allowed to use irresponsible logic in putting their argument across.
Because this dangerous priestly logic will come back and bite them.
