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CHAPTER VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

A. Summary

The Roman Catholic church in the Philippines has failed to adequately address growing

number of cases of clergy sexual abuses. This is primarily due to the lack of political will in

enforcing what is written in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP)

Pastoral Guidelines on Sexual Abuses and Misconduct by the Clergy. The two unresolved cases

of Frs. Raleigh Siapno and Arwyn Diesta are prime examples of the church’s failure in their

accountability mechanism.

Additionally, the CBCP Guidelines tend to protect erring priests rather than discipline. It also

deviates from the provision of the Canon Law on how to deal with clergy abuses, making it a

paper tiger.

Both the CBCP Guidelines and the Canon Law are two key documents that seek to address

the growing number of clergy sexual abuses in the country yet these were not utilized by the

church. While the CBCP Guidelines remain as paper tiger to date, the church in the Philippines

could have strictly enforced the provisions written in the Canon Law regarding sexual abuse.

This way, the increasing number of clergy sexual abuses in the country could have been halted.

Yet, the CBCP seems unapologetic when it comes to these issues. Instead of addressing the

roots of the problem, the CBCP just transfers erring priests to other dioceses and when the issue

dies down, they will re-install the priest to wherever diocese he originally belongs to.

This seems problematic because under Canon Law those priests who have been proven guilty

to molest minors or violated their vow of celibacy should be given just penalty including

dismissal from the priesthood.

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Meanwhile, the CBCP Pastoral Guidelines is a paper tiger because bishops have leeway not

to follow it. The efficiency of its enforcement has yet to be seen because a lot of priests guilty of

molesting a minor or violating their vow of celibacy remain as priests up to date. This is a sad

reality in the Philippines.

But an even sadder reality is that victims wallow in bitterness after the molestation happened

yet the church seems so forgiving to the suspects because they are part of the church. The

accountability mechanism of the church fails when it comes to the strict implementation of the

Guidelines the church itself has drafted.

In the end, despite a clear clause both in the Pastoral Guidelines and Canon Law that guilty

priests should be dealt with seriously, the Philippine Catholic church has failed to carry out its

mandate to its flock by tolerating wolves’ in shepherds clothing to thrive within the church.

B. Conclusion

While the CBCP’s move to draft and promulgate the Pastoral Guidelines is something to

appreciate, its primary goal to address the growing number of clergy sexual abuse cases is not

being met. Enforcement, administrative obstacles and poor implementation abetted the dilemma.

Contrary to its objective to address the growing number of clergy sexual abuses in the

country, the CBCP Guidelines failed to do so as it deviated from what Canon Law prescribe.

Despite the efforts of the church to alleviate the problem, cover-ups are a common scenario

among bishops since they wanted to protect the name of the priests and the church more than

give justice to what was done to the victim.

Aside from the cover-ups of the bishops themselves, the study found out that the church has

this culture of silence whenever a church official fall from grace. Since the church is a human
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institution, the imperfection of it was manifested on how it carried out justice and accountability

to the victims of clergy sexual abuses.

It can also be drawn that more than the Pastoral Guidelines being a paper tiger, it is also

being used as an excuse for some priests who have committed mistakes to stay in the ministry

because the Guidelines tolerate priests who have sired a child as long as it is only one.

It is clear, however, that instead of the Guidelines, the CBCP should go back to what the

Canon Law says that priests should remain celibate. The moment a priest breaks his celibacy in

whatever forms like fathering a child or violating and molesting a minor, then he should be

immediately out of the priesthood.

The study was also able to get a rough estimate that inside the Galilee center, for every 20

priests in the Galilee Center, four have violated minors. One out of the four eventually leaves the

priesthood after therapy. The remaining three continue with their priestly functions.
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CHAPTER VII. IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Theoretical Issues

The findings of this study corresponded well with the theoretical framework, which utilized

the Accountability Theory and the Open Systems Theory to show the relationships of the

systems inside an institution like the church and the implementation of a document such as the

Pastoral Guidelines on Sexual Abuse and Misconduct by the Clergy and the Canon law.

The Accountability Theory explained how a superior reacts whenever a subordinate commits

a mistake

B. Methodological Issues

The study employed an investigative approach to an issue that has mostly been restricted to

the issue of whether the church practices what it preaches. This study employed both qualitative

and quantitative methods through people and paper trail in an attempt to find out more on the

accountability mechanism of an institution like the church. The gathered data via people and

paper trail were triangulated with information and documentation obtained from different

sources.

Extensive interviews with key sources, including former and current church officials,

victims, provided a more comprehensive understanding of the issue being discussed which led to

the conclusion of the study. However, issues such as unavailability of some sources due to prior

commitments and conferences abroad such as current Manila Archbishop Antonio Tagle and

current CBCP president Socrates Villegas arose. This resulted to the researcher looking for other
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sources that would compensate to whatever was missed due to the unavailability of the priority

sources.

While heavy on people trail, the study also depended on paper trail. Pertinent documents

such as the Pastoral Guidelines on Sexual Abuses and Misconduct by the Clergy and the Canon

Law, among others, were examined in order to make sense of the drawn conclusion that the

Guideline is flawed in framework and in implementation.

As originally planned, the study would also want to examine the Philippine Child Protection

Laws in order to see if it also applies to the Catholic church. While it applies to the Catholic

church, there have been no criminal cases filed against pedophile priests which prevented the

study to examine whether the Philippine Child Protections Laws are well implemented to a

powerful institution like the church.

Although religious institutions are hard to investigate, the researcher proposes several other

methodological approaches for further researchers such as looking for other case studies that

would strengthen the investigation being done.

While the scope of the study was limited to the Catholic church only, it is recommended to

future researchers to also examine and investigate other religious institutions other than the

Catholic church. In this way, it could shed light that this phenomenon known as clergy sexual

abuse is not only a problem of the Catholic church per se but also to other religions as well.

C. Practical Issues

This investigative study explored the issues on the implementation of the CBCP Pastoral

Guidelines on Sexual Abuses and Misconduct by the Clergy. Also this study explored the cover-

up issues of the Catholic church on its erring priests. The study proved that the church is still
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covering up on issues of misconducts by its clergies and that the accountability mechanism of the

church related to this dilemma is weak.

Students and future researcher doing similar studies on clergy abuses can use this research as

an example of how the church systematically neglects its accountability mechanism in place of

protecting the name of the erring priests and the church itself. The study will also be a good input

for the church to examine its accountability mechanism as regards clergy sexual abuses.

For the victims, meanwhile, they should be made aware that the Pastoral Guidelines exist in

order to aide them on their dilemma.

On the bigger scale, since the study was only able to covere two cases, other researchers

might want to look at similar cases in other dioceses. Also of interests are those who were sent to

the Galilee Center and those who have been rehabilitated.