PHILIPPINES
The Washington Times
By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Sunday, May 18, 2014
The United Nations and victims advocates recently have amplified demands for an overhaul of the Vatican’s response to its sex abuse scandal, but Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has been spearheading change for decades.
The archbishop of Manila, capital of the Philippines, said reports of abuse have even reached his island country, but the cases are being handled under instructions he helped to establish.
“There have been cases submitted to Rome for dispensation,” Cardinal Tagle said of the abuse reports in the Philippines, though he did not know the number. “In the interim, we are actively observing the guidelines we formulated. We are doing our best.”
Cardinal Tagle has been away from Manila for several weeks, having left early this month for a wedding in Chicago before flying to Rome and then to Washington, where he gave the homily Friday at Catholic University’s Baccalaureate Mass.
In an interview with The Washington Times at the university, the archbishop recalled the instructions passed down from Pope John Paul II during a conference of bishops and cardinals on what to do about the growing number of abuse cases being reported.
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