Turbulent Priest
Published in THE TABLET
October 27, 2001
Fr. Shay Cullen, Irish Columban missionary, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and veteran campaigner against the sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines, has long known what it is like to be resented. But last year it looked as if he would finally lose and p [pack up in Olongapo City, where his PREDA Children’s Center has 20 Filipino volunteers.
In 1983, he alerted the world to the first of many subsequent cases of child prostitution in the Philippines involving US army personnel. Not content with exposing the servicemen and rescuing the nine-year old girl who had been sexually abused, the Columban also pointed the finger at the syndicate which supplied her. It is part of helping the victims of abuse heal. “They’ve got to come out and point at their abuser and say, “I’m innocent. He did it.”
Hence the attempt to stop Fr. Shay’s work. The legal cases against him, which are brought by wealthy Europeans connected to foreign pedophile syndicates, are usually thrown out at the first stage. But last year they hit back with charges of their own against Fr. Shay- accusing him of the sexual abuse of children.
The head of the Church in the Philippines, Cardinal Jaime Sin, was leading political opposition to President Joseph Estrada at the time, and the Government was looking to embarrass the Church. The Secretary of Justice obliged by supporting the case against the priest, and Fr. Shay fled into hiding. For the first time, he knew depression. “You’re thrown back on your faith,” he told us recently. “All your life you’re working against the abuse, and then you’re charged with it. They knew where to hit.”
But within any system, however corrupt, there are always good people. In December last year, a courageous appeals court judge stood up for the Secretary of Justice. The charges were dropped and Fr. Shay was soon back at the PREDA.
Anyone interested at PREDA’s work can see their website, www.preda.org, or contact the Jubilee Campaign on tel. 01483894787.
