Profound shame
“The Church must look into the mirror of truth without fear. This scourge is not merely a collection of isolated events; it represents a profound human and spiritual failure that demands our ongoing vigilance, absolute transparency, and unyielding support for the healing of survivors. Our accountability must be absolute, for where trust was broken, only the truth can begin to rebuild,” Pope Leo XIV said.
His remarks came after a major investigation into the French church on clerical child abuse produced a 2,500-page report published by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church in October 2021.
The report of the commission, led by Jean-Marc Sauvé, estimated that at least 330,000 children were sexually abused within church institutions in the country over a 70-year period. The vast majority of the victims were boys between ages 10 and 13.
There were about 2,900 to 3,200 people abusing children in the church since 1950. Roughly two-thirds were priests or other ordained clerics, while the others are lay members. A BBC report said the commission had found that the institutional church showed a “cruel indifference toward the victims.”
The French bishops have expressed profound shame and asked the victims for forgiveness. The French church has agreed to pay them compensation. Although Leo’s predecessor Francis stood up for the child abuse victims and challenged the coverup and denial of their ordeal, he was ignored by most bishops, so the abuse continued with impunity.
This writer met with Pope Francis face-to-face in September 2015 when he was invited to join an international symposium in the Vatican on protecting the rights of street children and women. Working with about 35 other people, the symposium resulted in a document that became Francis’ guidelines on street children for dioceses worldwide.
In Massachusetts, the state’s Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell published a report on Sept. 30, 2026, after yearslong investigation in the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester dioceses that found evidence that 275 clerics, including priests and nuns, abused children and that 944 kids reported being sexually abused.
“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while the institutions entrusted with their care too often failed to protect them,” Campbell said.
The number of priests abusing children worldwide then and now is staggering. What must it be like in the Philippines, where only one priest was convicted last year?
In January 2025, the United States-based watchdog group BishopAccountability.org launched an online database naming 82 Catholic priests and bishops linked to the Philippines who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors. Researchers say this is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
The rest of that proverbial iceberg, based on theoretical estimates, is as follows: In countries where independent commissions, government inquiries, or extensive legal discovery took place, researchers found that between four percent and seven percent of all active Catholic priests faced credible accusations of child sexual abuse over the multidecade periods investigated.
If we apply these international baselines to the 10,662 Filipino priests currently serving the Philippines, 423 are likely to have abused children. A midrange estimate would mean 586 priests would have abused children, while a high-range estimate would show that 746 would have abused children.
So, despite all the promises by the hierarchy to increase safeguarding, only one Filipino priest has ever been convicted, one in jail and on trial, and about six facing credible complaints. They are, for sure, above the law and allowed, it seems, to continue their horrific crimes, which are covered up by most bishops.
Despite the strong warnings of Pope Leo and the advice of Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of the Diocese of Kalookan to bring clerical abusers to justice, change is not coming soon. (shaycullen@gmail.com)/PN
