Would marriage solve
the Church's problems?



THE SEXUAL harassment scandal that recently erupted around Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. seems indicative of a new phase in the relationship of between the Catholic Church and its laity around the globe. After decades of silence, in which both boys and girls were molested by some priests, the victims of such unspeakable crimes are finally coming forward and facing their monsters.

The Catholic Church in the United States has been rocked by such revelations in the last year, and a series of lawsuits filed in different US cities by victims of molestation by priests, has forced the church to pay out millions of dollars in settlements. The most recent one was the Catholic Church in Kentucky, which agreed to pay out 21 million dollars to a group of men and women who claim to have been molested by priests when they were children.

In the past, the Catholic Church in the US ignored reports of child molestation among its priests, and dealt with severe accusations by simply moving an accused priest to a new parish. Many times, the priest was allowed to continue to have regular contact with children, and in some cases the molestation happened again with new groups of children.

Scared, hurt, but most of all embarrassed and feeling powerless, most victims of such crimes kept silent, hoping that closure would come one day in the future. But for many, this molestation at such an early age led to psychological problems throughout their lives. Confronting the person who harmed them face-to-face was for many the only way to start on the road of healing.

The church in the US has now formulated new guidelines to deal with such cases, agreeing to suspend priests on the first accusation, and to expel them outright from the priesthood if a second accusation arises. This is a huge step forward from the "let's pretend nothing happened" attitude of the past.

Bishop Bacani is accused of trying to hug and kiss his own secretary, who I assume is an adult and thus more capable of defending herself from unwanted advances than a child would be able to. Whether he really did or not is still not yet clear, but his leaving for a three-week vacation in the US doesn't help make him look innocent.

In a reasonable attempt at tackling the issue of sexual urges, which all of us humans have, why doesn't the Catholic Church finally allow its priests to get married, just like Protestant denominations do? In Islam and Judaism, imams and rabbis are all allowed to get married and have families. This would help to allow priests to focus on the spiritual well being of their parishes, instead of resorting to sexual harassment.

The church in the Philippines should follow its American brothers and sisters in adopting strict new harassment guidelines and allow victims of molestation to come forward and face their harassers. This is the only way that the church will be able to save its reputation and maintain its dignity.

Miss Universe and texting revisited

A FEW readers reacted to my column last week, in which I described staying up until 4 a.m. to tape the Miss Universe beauty pageant.

One female reader in the US complained that I had allegedly stayed up to drool over the women parading around in swimming suits. I'm sorry to disappoint her, but I didn't drool. And for her information, watching beauty pageants is a national craze in the Philippines, whether you are male or female. It's a cultural quirk of the Philippines that beauty pageants are taken extremely seriously, and isn't something that I expect an American to fully understand.

A few Filipino readers in Hail, Saudi Arabia, wrote and called me to ask if I could send them a copy of the pageant. Unfortunately, I have only one copy, so I cannot. Perhaps they could ask Orbit television to broadcast it again?

A Filipino-American, Rafael Robert Delfin, wrote to me to tell me that Japan did indeed win the Miss Universe crown in 1959, after I had written that I didn't think Japan had made it that far before in the pageant (fourth runner-up). He has his own website on the Miss Universe pageant at www.missuniversecritic.com. He's updating it on a daily basis so have a look. He provides a lot of behind-the-scenes information and gossip that he gleans from watching Spanish-language television in the US and reading South American newspapers online.

He pointed out to me that next year's pageant is scheduled to be held in Ecuador and not in the Dominican Republic as I reported. That's still going to be a seven to eight hour time difference with the Kingdom.

Finally, a Dutch reader wrote to me to say that she too was having problems sending cellular phone text messages to Filipino sailor friends around the globe. It seems that her cell phone service provider Vodavone wanted to charge text message recipients in the Philippines a small fee for each message received. When the mobile phone companies in the Philippines refused to make such payments, Vodavone canceled all of its SMS contracts with Philippine firms. This explained why she could receive messages from Filipino friends, and why they never received her texts. The reader had to buy a prepaid SIM card from another phone company to overcome this problem, and is now able to send and receive text messages to/from her Filipino friends wherever they are in the world.

Comments or questions? E-mail the author at manilamoods@hotmail.com.
Visit the author's website at http://www.manilamoods.com to read past columns.