DEFINITION OF THE MOTION:

Ladies and gentlemen, dear adjudicator, I, the Prime Minister of the Government side
bid you good afternoon. The motion vaguely states that This House Believes that the Tree is
barren. This tree could be defined many things, but we, on the government side, give meaning
to this TREE as the Government Authorities and that they have not been successful in
penalizing all clerics who have been proven to be sexual predators. Priests, bishops, and
cardinals who have certain illegal cases of pedophilia and sexual assault
STANDARDS AND PARAMETERS:
We set this debate on the standard of the whole universal church meaning not only in
the Philippine context, but all other countries all over the world with this issue.
SPLIT:
I as the Prime Minister will talk about the factors that hinder the government authorities
to successfully penalize the clerics of their sexual misconduct. While my deputy will explain
why these hindrances should be eradicated. And lastly our whip will propose to you, ladies
and gentlemen, an idea of how we can better penalize these clerics, for their good, and the
good of all. If they have something to add or to better expand their arguments, they may most
certainly and freely do so.
STATUS QUO:
And so, ladies and gentlemen, dear adjudicator, what is happening now is clerics, who
have been proven guilty of assaulting a person sexually, are not suffering what is due,
according to the gravity of their crime. Sexual assault is a grave crime for it strips the assaulted
of his or her freedom of self-determination. Latest news is that the Cardinal McCarrick, who
have been proven very guilty of pedophilic sexual assault have ONLY been defrocked,
meaning stripped of his ministry as a priest. He can no longer initiate sacraments.
I personally know a priest, who I will not state the name and the name of the parish,
who adjourned a meeting for the parish youth council, told a minor to stay after the said
meeting and grasped the minor by the arm and made the minor sit in the priest’s lap and then
kissed the minor on the lips by force. I am not telling you this, ladies and gentlemen and dear
adjudicator, to degrade priests, but rathe I tell you this to show how weak the human flesh is.
Disclaimer lang yon. He was not jailed. He was not sued. But instead he was sent on a rehab
and psychiatric therapy exclusively for priests. And after that, he was just sent into hiding
initiated by his bishop and now lives in a DOMUS SACERDOTVM VETERES, a retirement
home for old priests.
I know another instance of one clergy who went drinking with parishioners and got
drunk. He eventually attempted to kiss a parishioner on the lips but luckily the parishioner got
away from his tight hold on her and went to go seek the company of other parishioners in the
said event. This lady tried to get a statement to the diocese but when the investigator of the
diocese was interviewing the lady, the lady changed her mind and said that she would not like
to press charges anymore. The parish priest is still untouched as of today.
DISCUSSION:
Which brings us to the reasons why government authorities are not successful in
penalizing these sexual predators.
1) THE STATUS OF THE PRIEST. The reason why the lady did not continue to press
charges against the priest who attempted to kiss her is because she was intimidated. She
was scared because she is going to put a priest of God in jail. Provided that she is a
religious woman. Being a presbyter is a high position held by the Catholic Church for
they initiate the sacraments, the reason why the Church was founded. In our Christian
country, we hold the priest in high honor. And this obstructs their penalization. And
this I have the knowledge of because I interviewed the lady.
2) THE AGE OF THE PRIEST. Most priests who have been accused and proven to be
sexual predators are seniors. And most judges consider the age of the accused.
McCarrick was not sent to jail because he is 88 years old. And it frustrates the
authorities because CLEARLY, this sexual predator, deserves to be punished for the
one thousand pages of police report against him and his inferiors in his diocese. Not
only he is a pedophile, he covers up cases of pedophilia of priests under his diocese.
3) PROTOCOL OF THE ECCLESIAL COMMUNITY. A priest, belonging to the
ecclesiastical community, have the bishop as his superior. And protocol states that if a
complaint about a priest is given to the superior, the bishop, for instance, about sexual
harassment, the bishop DOES NOT HAVE THE OBLIGATION to immediately go to
the local legal authorities. He has yet to conduct an investigation of his own. Like what
happened to the lady, they will investigate the issue until it is proven. This hinders the
success of penalizing the accused because other different factors will come into play
with the accuser, given the STATUS OF THE PRIEST and the accuser’s own
reputation is at stake et cetera.
In short, the penalizing of clerical sexual abuses is not successful due to the fact that the
Catholic Church gets in the way and our Filipino- Christian Culture holds the priest in high
esteem and we have the tendency to be frightened when it comes to pressing charges and
somehow it becomes toxic when the well being of the people is at stake.
AND THIS OUR HOUSE BELIEVES.