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By Rene Q. Bas
Conclusion
The Americas maintained a
percentage of around 29.8 percent, while Oceania stayed stable, at
slightly over 1 percent of the world’s priests, according to the
communiqué.
“The only continent to see its
own quota decline is Europe,” it said. “In 2004 the 199,978
priests represented nearly 49.3 percent of the total ecclesiastic
group, while one year later it had diminished to 48.8 percent.”
The Pontifical Yearbook reported
that the number of seminarians had increased in Africa, Asia and
America, while decreasing in Europe and remaining stable in Oceania.
“In 2005, of every 100
candidates to the priesthood in the whole world, 32 were American,
26 Asian, 21 African, 20 European and one from Oceania,” said
the Vatican communiqué giving the salient points of the
yearbook’s article about Catholic membership, clergy and
seminarian increases.
Philippine statistics
The 2002 Report of the
Jehovah’s Witness Worldwide found that there were 5,188 Catholic
diocesan priests and 0.000978863 diocese per 1,000 people; that
there were 73,605,000 Catholics, or 82.27 percent of the population
and that 68 percent of these Catholics went to church not
necessarily every Sunday but did go to church maybe to attend
novenas every now and then or for their babies’ christening.
The research also found that
Muslims made up 5 percent of the population, that there were 142,125
Jehovah’s Witnesses and 250 Jews.
It found these religions and
their percentages of the population:
Roman Catholic, 80.9%;
Evangelical, 2.8%; Iglesia ni Kristo, 2.3%; Aglipayan, 2%; other
Christian, 4.5%; Muslim, 5%; other 1.8%; unspecified 0.6%; none
0.1%.
The percentage of Christians in
the population has remained constant during the 20th century, the
National Statistics Office says. Since 1916, however, the percentage
of Catholics has declined by approximately 10.5-percentage points.
The decrease in the Catholic share of the population reflects the
increasing number of Protestant, Aglipayan and Iglesia ni Kristo
churches.
Meanwhile, the Muslim and
Buddhist (with Taoist and “Chinese religions”) shares of the
population have remained fairly stable since 1960.
Priestly sexual abuse
In September 2002 the Social
Weather Stations released the results of a survey this respected
research organization conducted. Without being commissioned or
financed by the Catholic hierarchy, SWS did the survey because the
subject was getting a lot of media attention in both the United
States and the Philippines. SWS presented its findings and
methodology to the Catholic bishops.
Mahar Mangahas, the chief
operating officer and leader of SWS, reported that “About 9 out of
10 Filipinos surveyed by SWS, [said] the priests in their own areas
never take sexual advantage of children, and never have a
mistress.”
“The overwhelming opinion of
Filipinos, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, is that a priest
caught in a single incident of abuse of youth should be immediately
expelled from the priesthood and not given a second chance,”
Mangahas reported.
He continued:
“Those who say that the priests
in their area often take sexual advantage of youth are 1%, and those
who say that the priests in their area often have mistresses is
close to 2%. The balance from 100% are those who say that, in their
own areas, such sexual misbehavior happens rarely.
“Meanwhile, the proportion of
Filipinos who favor allowing Catholics priests to get married has
grown slightly to one out every four now [September 2002], compared
to only one out of five in 1996. Filipinos are the most conservative
Catholics in the world, on the matter of allowing marriage for
priests.”
In Mangahas’ report (released
to the media), special mention was made of “Sexual abuse of
youth.”
“After being told of the recent
US cases of Catholic priests taking sexual advantage of youth and
then covered up by church authorities so as to avoid scandal, almost
90% said that this kind of abuse never happens, 9% said that it
rarely happens, and 1% said that it often happens, in their own
areas.
‘One strike and out’
“When asked whether a priest
who had sexually abused a child [bata] should be allowed to stay in
the priesthood if his bishop felt that the sin would not be
repeated, or whether he should be expelled immediately, 91% favored
expulsion.
“The desire to apply a ‘one
strike and out’ rule to erring priests is equally strong among
Filipino Catholics and the 15% of Filipinos who are not Catholics.
Mangahas noted that “in the
United States, recent polls [in 2002] also show that the demand for
a ‘one-strike’ rule is equally strong among American Catholics
and the 75% of Americans who are not Catholics. This shows that, in
both countries, the moral standard demanded of priests is related
more to the general national culture than to the Catholic religion
specifically.”
The SWS survey reported on by
Mangahas found that most Filipinos did not think the problem of
priests “having a mistress” existed in their community.
Mangahas continued: “Regarding
the issue of a priest taking a mistress, or kerida, on the other
hand, 88% said that this kind of abuse never happens, 10% said that
it rarely happens, and 1.7% said that it often happens, in their own
areas.”
Yes to priestly celibacy
Most Filipinos do not want their
priests to get married, the SWS survey found.
“As to whether Catholic priests
should be allowed to get married, the new 2002 SWS survey found 60%
opposed, 26% in favor, and 14% undecided, in response to a question
that allowed a neutral answer,” Mangahas reported.
“This compares with a 1996 SWS
survey that found 79% opposed and 21% in favor of allowing marriage
for priests, using a forced-choice Yes or No question.
Notwithstanding the difference between questions used in 1996 and
2002, the results do indicate a small yet statistically significant
growth in Filipino amenability to marriage for priests.
“The 1996 Philippine survey was
conducted jointly with surveys of Catholics in six other countries,
on the general topic of possible future reforms in the Catholic
Church. As of 1996, large majorities of German, Irish, Spanish,
American and Italian Catholics were in favor of permitting priests
to get married, while Polish Catholics were evenly divided on the
issue.
“Only in the Philippines was a
minority in favor of allowing priests to be married.”
So, all is well with the Catholic
Church in the Philippines—both from the viewpoint of the clergy
and the hierarchy and the majority of the faithful.
As everywhere else, the Church in
the Philippines has problems. The members of the Philippines
hierarchy, in solidarity with the Pope, are trying their best to
address these problems.
And most of the Filipino
Catholics for their part are by and large obedient to the teaching
authority of the Church—although they will merrily sin and then go
to confession.
 --With
a report by the
Zenit News Agency and the
Social Weather Stations
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