Priest Eases Pain of Children
Published in the Irish Examiner
April 20, 2001
Darragh McManus
Talks to Fr. Shay Cullen who won't let up in fight against evil
THE graphic novel of Watchmen poses the interesting theory, through one of its main characters, that people who risk life and safety in the pursuit of social justice are compelled to do so; that paradoxically, they have no choice that choice.
They may initially be driven by conscience or empathy or religious belief, but an accumulation of experiences will eventually result in catharsis, a fundamental inner-change; they will progress from wishing to needing to act, regardless of the consequences. Fr Shay Cullen seems like that; like he must continue his work, like there's no other option. A native of Dublin, he joined the Seminary of the Missionary Society of St. Columban in Navan in 1963 and was ordained six years later. He was immediately assigned to Olongapo City in the Philippines -- then, as now, a devil's playground for American armed forces and wealthy foreigners, a place where children and women were sold like vegetables at the market.
Horrified at the systematic abuse which he encountered daily, the PRDA (People's Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance) Children's Rights centre was established in 1974, successfully lobbying for the removal of US naval base! And tackling the resultant sex tourism Industry. This work has earned him German and Italian human rights awards, and a Nobel Prize nomination for 2001. Not surprisingly, PREDA workers have consequently been made targets of retaliation and counter charges. A staggering 61 false complaints, mostly for libel, have been made, and a website has even been set up, solely devoted to character assassination and negative propaganda. Fr. Cullen and comrades have been detained and beaten by police, attacked by a paid crowd, and received a lot of threats and legal harassment, complaints that were proven to be false.
And yet, he perseveres. The reasoning is simple and deep-felt: "a few times it has felt hopeless to go on so much evil, so much apathy here and abroad. But where else can I go? I know many people think that I am a dreamer, trying to change the world, but we have to try." His motivations for initially joining the religious society and subsequent devotion to the downtrodden of Olongapo appear intertwined and indivisible.
"It was the challenge of an adventurous life in the great unknown that attracted me at first, but the example of Jesus Christ was the overwhelming influence. I realized how privileged I was, just to be basically secure and have an education.
"When I read about the oppression and injustice, I wanted to do something meaningful and worthwhile with my life and bring some small change to the lives of these people. So it was no one thing, no Road to Damascus experience, but a combination of these important realities. I thought it a good thing to do, a worthwhile way to live out life."
PREDA does a wide range of work, including the rescue of children from the streets; providing therapy; bringing legal cases against paedophiles and their accommodators; protecting children involved from the threat of abduction or murder. They also publicize the problem at home and abroad, lobbying governments worldwide for extraterritorial and-sex tourism laws, defending human rights activists and working on various economic projects to facilitate sustainable indigenous manufacturing and trading.
Understandably, work of such value and importance bestows enormous satisfaction and self-worth on the person - genuinely its own reward - although anger and sadness are also palpable in Fr. Cullen's words. "The children do recover here at the PREDA therapeutic community. After days of affirmation by the social workers and therapists who make them feel cared for, they begin to melt and open up. The other children are trained and encouraged to welcome them also," he says.
"When I know that a child is on gives me the road to recovery, that gives me great satisfaction. And when the children get to court, and have been empowered through the spiritual formation programme and the therapy, they can give strong, convincing testimony.
"But I feel a lot of upset that their abusers often go unpunished and are still out there, often abusing other children. I know that the system is stacked against the children." Stacked may be an understatement. Local Filipino government seems rife with corruption, national government transfixed with apathy, international government unaware or lazy or just indifferent.
"Local government is usually in cahoots with bar operators and grants licenses for them to operate. Prostitution goes on; it is illegal but all look the other way. We are harassed because we are driving away sex tourists by bringing about convictions."
Like many who work and live abroad for substantial length of time, Fr. Cullen has grown fond of his adopted country has and in some sense, almost become part-Filipino. His accent now as an endearing Asian twang, and he admits being lucky to having two homes, Ireland and the Philippines.
harassed
because we
are driving
away child
sex tourists"
As to whether he considers the children almost as his own - an understandable feeling - he says: "I feel a responsibility for these children in such terrible conditions. I don't work directly with the children; I see to it that all the services are in place and are delivered with professionalism and compassion. I work for their rights and to see they get help and justice."
An appreciation of the intricacies and ambiguities of this world also seems ever-present. He realizes abusers themselves need help, but rightly insists on appropriate punishment for the suffering they have inflicted.
He feels anger towards the perpetrators, but accepts the need to approach the situation in a calm, dispassionate way, that personal feelings cloud the issue and make us unreliable. He recognizes the importance of pursuing legal cases against without forgetting the primacy of caring for the victims.
And there, one feels, is the bottom line, the compelling force. Shay Cullen comes across, in the nicest possible way, as a stubborn, kindhearted, angry and determined man, someone who is pissed off at the injustices of the world and feels and evangelical desire to do something about it.
As simple and as inescapable as that… A documentary on the man and his work, broadcast some years ago, showed Fr. Cullen at the grave of a young girl who had died in the most unimaginably awful way, and suggested her memory kept going on.
He says that the case of Rosario Baluyot was the worst case of sexual abuse and child prostitution they ever found, and it haunts him until this day. But one imagines Rosario is only one of many people for whom he feels responsible, for whom he whishes to make the world a little better. Or maybe not a wish, but a need.
"When I see the oppression and injustice in this world, the sea of poverty and the islands of glittering wealth and obscene extravagance floating among the bodies of the drowning, I feel something in me that says 'don't accept this, don't turn away, don't ignore it and seek the easy life.'"
www.preda.org - information and contacts for the PREDA Foundation
