Sheine Nicole C. Lim | November 12, 2018
MANILA, PH— Leniency; an insult to human misery and basic human rights as much as it is a privilege to abusers who promote human misery and the deprivation of people’s basic human rights.
An article from humansarefree.com went viral after disclosing that the Vatican Church had unfairly acquitted a priest, Jose Garcia Ataulfo from his odious crimes, the said priest was given leniency by the Vatican Church after admitting to being infected with HIV while sexually abusing 30 young girls, aged 5 to 10, from the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico, many of whom were from indigenous groups. Hence, depriving the victims and their family of their basic human right to be given fair justice all the while exalting and privileging “ordained” abusers. In the Vatican Church’s decision, they affirmed and accentuated that the acquittal was the Church’s way of creating a “more merciful church.”
But the Church should take into consideration the degree and extent of what these abusive priests have done, and in this case, ex-communication, rehabilitation and imprisonment are options to be considered because in Ataulfo’s case, it could not be suppressed that these ingenuous children were already exposed in the cruelties of life at such a young age as he did not only “abused” the victims, but also robbed them of their innocence and right to live a normal life as much as he already played as a judge to his victims as he read his verdict and imposed their death sentence which is carrying the burden of having the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that slowly weakens and destroys our immune system.
Furthermore, we ought to discern the jarring actuality that there is an anomaly ever present and ever justified by the Church and that mercy and justice are now being treated as a commodity, thus making it as a resource scarce for those who cannot attain it.
Moreover, this has been going on for lots of decades and it often goes unnoticed and interfered by none because of the separation between the Church and the State. This “concealed” atrocity of the Church was further solidified through The 1983 Code of Canon Law, stating that “it is almost impossible for bishops to dismiss priests for sexual abuse. Under canon law, the more children a priest abuses, the less likely can he be dismissed” and additionally, the priests have the “privilege of the clergy” which enables them to be put in trial in the Church’s court, allowing them to get away with their crime as the canon law is advantageous and might I add, biased and completely burdensome to their victims just because they are part of the religious orders.
This code of canon law wherein they let perpetrators escape from their crimes was contradicting to what I was made to believe because at such a young age, raised in a Catholic country, we were forced to believe that the Church will protect and save us from the harsh realities of life and that the Church is composed of “ordained” people who we “wrongly” treat as “descendants” of the Lord and sometimes, living saints even, ergo worthy of our respect, trust and praise. But unbeknownst to most people, most especially innocent parishioners, that inside the cemented and embellished walls of the “House of God” lives the ever petrifying, abusive and sex-thirsty priests who prey not only on women and men, but also on young children who do not have the power to fight back because they are easily threatened and coerced.
Now, I firmly believe that there are laws and morals of the Church indeed that is dehumanizing and demoralizing in nature and gaining knowledge about this issue not only filled me with information and awareness but also disgust, indignation and disbelief since growing up in a devoted family, and all the while studying in a Catholic school for all of my life as a student, it was rather difficult for me to pinpoint the wrongs of the elders as that is considered a show of “disrespect” because as wonderful children of God, we are told that elders are always right and it trained me to never question the authorities, most especially if these people are part of the religious orders, since the Church could do no wrong and no harm to its people for it is where all godly things come from but also, for everyone’s information, a place where abusers breed. Back then, we love hearing biblical stories but my most favorite biblical story was about an angel turning his back on God, punished by being cast out of heaven but his whereabouts after his banishment was left out so it took me years to realized that the elders forgot to tell us that the devil was cast out from heaven to land, clothed with a cloak of invisibility, unleashing havoc with humans as his instrument or maybe they knew, they were just too scared to tell us or too scared to even believe but the truth has its own way of coming out and no secret can forever stay hidden.
Over and above that, I vividly remember that in most of my religion classes, we are taught that there are habits that give birth to other immoralities that we should avoid but what if those people who they told us were ‘ontologically changed when they were anointed by God at ordination’ are those who possess, proliferate and stimulate these kind of debaucheries? So when teachings in the comforts of our homes and classrooms are not enough and do not go beyond, it is our sole duty as decent human beings to inform and raise awareness about these taboo topics and concealed issues of our society that concerns people, most especially those who are oppressed and deprived. Needless to say, we should play our parts in sharing our knowledge to the people whose mindset and beliefs are made to conform, not criticize the wrong and not question the questionable. It is reasonable to support the church if and only if it stays true to its vision and mission as “protectors” of every life but when it serves not to protect but to annihilate the sanctity of life, it should therefore be criticized.
We do not go to a bank to deposit our money and entrust them to thieves as much as we do not go to our Church’s confession room to face a mirror and see a reflection of ourselves, worse than our present states.
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