The truth about child abuse in the MEP

WHEN journalists, researchers and teachers find facts, verify them and publish them, they perform a great service to society.

They act as the guardians of morality, protectors of human rights, challengers to dictators and abusive institutions, and a proverbial thorn in the side of tyrants. Alexei Navalny, a top critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, paid the price for his outspokenness by dying in prison. Investigative journalists and researchers are most effective in exposing wrongdoings, erring government officials and corrupt institutions.

I recently received a copy of a press release from the Missions Etrangères de Paris (Paris Foreign Missions Society or MEP). It is a French missionary organization that trains and sends missionaries to many countries in Asia, including Japan, Cambodia and Thailand. The press release did not talk about the good works of the society. Instead, it contains severe criticism and an apparently libelous attack on Michel Chambon, a theologian, anthropologist and researcher. He had written a research paper on the alleged child sexual abuse committed by some MEP priests in Asia and its cover-up by the group’s authorities. Although they have admitted there was a clerical child abuse problem and are acting to resolve it, their attack on the honest Chambon is like shooting the messenger and ignoring the message.

The press release is the MEP’s right-to-reply letter to Diplomat Magazine, where a paper titled “France, the Vatican and the Pan-Asian Sexual Abuse Scandals of MEP Missionaries” was published. Its subtitle reads: “Both French authorities and the Vatican seem reluctant to act on accusations of sexual abuse by French priests in Japan, Thailand, Cambodia and more.”

The MEP made some very shocking accusations against Chambon, a research fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore and a coordinator of the Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics. He was a visiting assistant professor in anthropology at Hanover College and a visiting researcher at the Center for the Study of Religion and Society of the University of Notre Dame.

I got a copy of the Diplomat article right away, and I understood why the MEP authorities were angry with the writer. The article is well-researched and well-written. It provides links to supporting publications. It brings to light the wrongdoing of some priests of the MEP, whose leaders want to hide the truth about the abuse. Their accusations against Chambon seem to be completely fabricated.

The article also indicates the lack of decisive action by the MEP to address the abuse and protect more children. Recently, it said it had commissioned a British research group — not independent, as it had paid the group — to investigate the allegations.

The article says: “Institutionally, the MEP is supervised by the Dicastery for Evangelization in Rome. Consequently, it is its pro-prefect, the Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who has canonical responsibility. The cardinal is close to the MEP and has been personally informed of allegations coming from Asia.” Tagle may not be the best man to deal with the allegations because he has expressed the view that such abuse is an internal matter. Pope Francis says the suspects should be put on trial. I advise all readers to read the Diplomat article on the Preda website.

Besides brave theologians and anthropologists, journalists, photographers, researchers, teachers and authors frequently risk their lives, careers and reputation. This is because they write and publish the truth, and the retaliation by authorities that feel threatened by its exposure can be fatal. In the Philippines, scores of journalists have been killed since 1992. The truth is a powerful force for good, and evildoers and their enablers fear and loathe honest researchers, writers and journalists. The goal of honest and respected print media, radio and television outlets is to tell the truth.

Today, there is a heated battle going on because of social media, which has the power to brainwash people with lies. For the first time in human history, almost anyone educated and has internet access can become an influencer. But it is mainstream media that can be trusted the most to help change the world.

The New York Times did so decades ago by publishing the so-called Pentagon Papers, the contents of which were revealed by Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst for then-US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s classified study of the Vietnam War. Those papers helped end that war. The Washington Post’s investigation of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate building, led by Bob Woodward and Carl

Bernstein, led to the resignation of then-president Richard Nixon. This is evidence of the power of the press as guardians of democracy and uncensored truth.

This writer, under a pen name, wrote in 1982 an exposé published in the now-defunct WE Forum newspaper. It was about the conspiracy of some authorities to cover up the truth about a child sexual abuse ring operated by local traffickers who sold children to American servicemen from the US naval base in Subic Bay, Olongapo City. The abuse of many of these children, who were subsequently infected with venereal diseases, led to a public outcry.

A US officer was put on trial in Guam for sexually abusing Filipino children. The story on it was picked up overseas. This writer received death threats and was even put on trial. The case was dismissed after the court ruled that telling the truth was not a crime.

That experience prompted this writer to call for a campaign to end women and child exploitation and abuse by closing the US military bases in the country and turning them into economic zones. Articles dealing with this continued for many years under the name “Life after the bases.” They offered a positive alternative to the US military presence. They achieved their goal when the Senate closed the bases and initiated a conversion plan as proposed in that series of articles.

The last US ship left in 1992. But the US military personnel have now returned in greater numbers to occupy nine of our bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Professors, teachers, writers and journalists can do great good by revealing the truth, but they risk paying a heavy price for their work. Yet, with courage, they will continue to write and publish the truth, which will set us free and allow us to live in dignity.