Topic: Is the Church Above The Law? Church Double Standards

[rusty]

Ivory Worship
Thousands of elephants die each year so that their tusks can be carved into religious objects. Can the slaughter be stopped?
By Bryan Christy
Photographs by Brent Stirton
THE PHILIPPINES CONNECTION
In an overfilled church Monsignor Cristobal Garcia, one of the best known ivory collectors in the Philippines, leads an unusual rite honoring the nation’s most important religious icon, the Santo Niño de Cebu (Holy Child of Cebu). The ceremony, which he conducts annually on Cebu, is called the Hubo, from a Cebuano word meaning “to undress.” Several altar boys work together to disrobe a small wooden statue of Christ dressed as a king, a replica of an icon devotees believe Ferdinand Magellan brought to the island in 1521. They remove its small crown, red cape, and tiny boots, and strip off its surprisingly layered underwear. Then the monsignor takes the icon, while altar boys conceal it with a little white towel, and dunks it in several barrels of water, creating his church’s holy water for the year, to be sold outside.

Garcia is a fleshy man with a lazy left eye and bad knees. In the mid-1980s, according to a 2005 report in the Dallas Morning News and a related lawsuit, Garcia, while serving as a priest at St. Dominic’s of Los Angeles, California, sexually abused an altar boy in his early teens and was dismissed. Back in the Philippines, he was promoted to monsignor and made chairman of Cebu’s Archdiocesan Commission on Worship. That made him head of protocol for the country’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, a flock of nearly four million people in a country of 75 million Roman Catholics, the world’s third largest Catholic population. Garcia is known beyond Cebu. Pope John Paul II blessed his Santo Niño during Garcia’s visit to the pope’s summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, in 1990. Recently Garcia helped direct the installation of Cebu’s newest archbishop in a cathedral filled with Catholic leaders, including 400 priests and 70 bishops, among them the Vatican’s ambassador. Garcia is so well known that to find his church, the Society of the Angels of Peace, I need only roll down my window and ask, “Monsignor Cris?” to be pointed toward his walled compound.

Some Filipinos believe the Santo Niño de Cebu is Christ himself. Sixteenth-century Spaniards declared the icon to be miraculous and used it to convert the nation, making this single wooden statue, housed today behind bulletproof glass in Cebu’s Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, the root from which all Filipino Catholicism has grown. Earlier this year a local priest was asked to resign after allegedly advising his parishioners that the Santo Niño and images of the Virgin Mary and other saints were merely statues made of wood and cement.

“If you are not devoted to the Santo Niño, you are not a true Filipino,” says Father Vicente Lina, Jr. (Father Jay), director of the Diocesan Museum of Malolos. “Every Filipino has a Santo Niño, even those living under the bridge.”

Each January some two million faithful converge on Cebu to walk for hours in procession with the Santo Niño de Cebu. Most carry miniature Santo Niño icons made of fiberglass or wood. Many believe that what you invest in devotion to your own icon determines what blessings you will receive in return. For some, then, a fiberglass or wooden icon is not enough. For them, the material of choice is elephant ivory.

I press through the crowd during Garcia’s Mass, but instead of standing before him to receive Communion, I kneel.

“The body of Christ,” Garcia says.

“Amen,” I reply, and open my mouth.

After the service I tell Garcia I’m from National Geographic, and we set a date to talk about the Santo Niño. His anteroom is a mini-museum dominated by large, glass-encased religious figures whose heads and hands are made of ivory: There is an ivory Our Lady of the Rosary holding an ivory Jesus in one, a near-life-size ivory Mother of the Good Shepherd seated beside an ivory Jesus in another. Next to Garcia’s desk a solid ivory Christ hangs on a cross.

Filipinos generally display two types of ivory santos: either solid carvings or images whose heads and hands, sometimes life-size, are ivory, while the body is wood, providing a base for lavish capes and vestments. Garcia is the leader of a group of prominent Santo Niño collectors who display their icons during the Feast of the Santo Niño in some of Cebu’s best shopping malls and hotels. When they met to discuss formally incorporating their club, an attorney member cried out to the group, “You can pay me in ivory!”

I tell Garcia I want to buy an ivory Santo Niño in a sleeping position. “Like this,” I say, touching a finger to my lower lip. Garcia puts a finger to his lip too. “Dormido style,” he says approvingly.

My goal in meeting Garcia is to understand his country’s ivory trade and possibly get a lead on who was behind 5.4 tons of illegal ivory seized by customs agents in Manila in 2009, 7.7 tons seized there in 2005, and 6.1 tons bound for the Philippines seized by Taiwan in 2006. Assuming an average of 22 pounds of ivory per elephant, these seizures represent about 1,745 elephants. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the treaty organization that sets international wildlife trade policy, the Philippines is merely a transit country for ivory headed to China. But CITES has limited resources. Until last year it employed just one enforcement officer to police more than 30,000 animal and plant species. Its assessment of the Philippines doesn’t square with what Jose Yuchongco, chief of the Philippine customs police, told a Manila newspaper not long after making a major seizure in 2009: “The Philippines is a favorite destination of these smuggled elephant tusks, maybe because Filipino Catholics are fond of images of saints that are made of ivory.” On Cebu the link between ivory and the church is so strong that the word for ivory, garing, has a second meaning: “religious statue.”

HOW TO SMUGGLE IVORY
I had no illusions of linking Monsignor Garcia to any illegal activity, but when I told him I wanted an ivory Santo Niño, the man surprised me. “You will have to smuggle it to get it into the U.S.”

“How?”

“Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,” he said. “So it looks crapty with blood. This is how it is done.”

Garcia gave me the names of his favorite ivory carvers, all in Manila, along with advice on whom to go to for high volume, whose wife overcharges, who doesn’t meet deadlines. He gave me phone numbers and locations. If I wanted to smuggle an icon that was too large to hide in my suitcase, I might get a certificate from the National Museum of the Philippines declaring my image to be antique, or I could get a carver to issue a paper declaring it to be imitation or alter the carving date to before the ivory ban. Whatever I decided to commission, Garcia promised to bless it for me. “Unlike those animal-nut priests who will not bless ivory,” he said.


Full article:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/ivory/christy-text?source=link_fb20120914ngm-ivory&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20120914ngm-ivory&utm_campaign=Content

 

[Prometheus75]

^

That "Monsignor Cris" is so retarded BEYOND belief, it's not even funny.

[rusty]

^
He's the same Msgr. Cris who was mentioned earlier in this thread. He's truly 'special'.   

International Traffic in Catholic Priests Who Abuse

*Fr. Cristobal Garcia admitted to having sex with two altar boys while a priest in Los Angeles in 1986. He fled to the Philippines, where he was ultimately promoted to monsignor.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/2005_03_16_Egerton_PriestAccused.htm
http://www.cebuarchdiocese.org/directory/organizations/

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/03_04/2007_04_17_Sipe_InternationalTraffic.htm

[rusty]

Catholic Church in Australia reveals 620 abuse cases
by Agence France-Presse | Updated 09/22/2012 5:17 PM

SYDNEY, Australia - The Catholic Church in one Australian state has revealed that at least 620 children have been abused by its clergy since the 1930s, sparking a fresh call Saturday for an independent inquiry.

The Catholic Church in Victoria revealed the number in a submission to a state parliamentary hearing on Friday but said the instances of abuse reported had fallen dramatically from the "appalling" numbers of the 1960s and 1970s.

"It is shameful and shocking that this abuse, with its dramatic impact on those who were abused and their families, was committed by Catholic priests, religious and church workers," Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said.

http://www.rappler.com/world/12877-catholic-church-in-australia-reveals-620-abuse-cases

[Tavus]

hey rusty looks like your link is making waves on the newspaper as well as yahoo.
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippines-illegal-ivory-trade-report-041001181.html

[RU9]

hey rusty looks like your link is making waves on the newspaper as well as yahoo.
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippines-illegal-ivory-trade-report-041001181.html

Now the follow-up:

NBI asked to probe ivory trade in PH
http://www.rappler.com/nation/13035-nbi-asked-to-probe-ivory-trade-in-ph

[RU9]

Priest linked to sex abuse in US, expelled by Dominican

Belonging to the Archdiocese of Cebu, he is the head of the Commission on Worship; the rector of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Jesus Nazareno in Cansojong, Talisay; and director of the archdiocese publications, “Bag-ong Lungsuranon” and “Mag-ambahan Kita,” according to the 2008-2009 Catholic Directory of the Philippines.

His high-profile ministry is a far cry from his situation some 20 years ago when he was expelled from the Dominican Order. Garcia then was working in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
His expulsion reportedly came after a nun told police that an altar boy had been found in his bed in a Los Angeles rectory.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/51138/priest-linked-to-sex-abuse-in-us-expelled-by-dominicans

[rusty]

Msgr. Garcia’s religious icons under scrutiny after NatGeo article

Under the 2001 Wildlife Protection Law or Republic Act No. 9147, “collecting, hunting or possessing wildlife, their by-products and derivatives” is banned and draws a penalty of imprisonment of two years and one day to four years, with a fine of up to P300,000.

Lim was quoted as saying the priest could face a jail term up to four years if he couldn’t explain the origin of his ivory collection.

“Otherwise we will charge him with illegal possession of ivory and illegal trade, if there’s evidence he is also involved in buying and selling,” Lim said in a phone interview with the Inquirer.

She said the public must steer clear of ivory figurines to escape possible prosecution.

However, mere possession of an ivory object is not illegal, said Cebu Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes in a separate interview. What is prohibited is smuggling.

Owning a ready-made ivory figurine is not against the law.

“We could not say whether or not Msgr. Cris is liable because we only heard of allegations.  We have to hear his side,” Paredes told Cebu Daily News.

Garcia left for Manila several weeks ago, reportedly to seek medical treatment.

He is believed to be lying low as well to avoid exacerbating the firestorm that broke with the release of the National Geographic report, which also turned criticism on the Catholic Church.

https://cebudailynews.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/msgr-garcias-religious-icons-under-scrutiny-after-natgeo-article/


http://www.snipcebu.com/2012/09/26/msgr-cris-his-ivory/

[sharkey360]

Msgr. Garcia’s religious icons under scrutiny after NatGeo article

Under the 2001 Wildlife Protection Law or Republic Act No. 9147, “collecting, hunting or possessing wildlife, their by-products and derivatives” is banned and draws a penalty of imprisonment of two years and one day to four years, with a fine of up to P300,000.

Lim was quoted as saying the priest could face a jail term up to four years if he couldn’t explain the origin of his ivory collection.

“Otherwise we will charge him with illegal possession of ivory and illegal trade, if there’s evidence he is also involved in buying and selling,” Lim said in a phone interview with the Inquirer.

She said the public must steer clear of ivory figurines to escape possible prosecution.

However, mere possession of an ivory object is not illegal, said Cebu Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes in a separate interview. What is prohibited is smuggling.

Owning a ready-made ivory figurine is not against the law.

“We could not say whether or not Msgr. Cris is liable because we only heard of allegations.  We have to hear his side,” Paredes told Cebu Daily News.

Garcia left for Manila several weeks ago, reportedly to seek medical treatment.

He is believed to be lying low as well to avoid exacerbating the firestorm that broke with the release of the National Geographic report, which also turned criticism on the Catholic Church.

https://cebudailynews.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/msgr-garcias-religious-icons-under-scrutiny-after-natgeo-article/


http://www.snipcebu.com/2012/09/26/msgr-cris-his-ivory/

The ivory reports are already worrying the local prayer/worship groups.

[Verbl Kint]

You guys should really visit the Tayuman area.  It's sad that many of the pious are ignorant of how much impact religion icons have had on the elephant population in the world.

[Prometheus75]

^
I live near the area. Those ivory statues are "semi-openly" sold by many of those stores selling religious statues and icons there. I say semi-openly because the merchants would normally place them way back in the store, never offering them up for sale to customers as they do the ceramic ones, *unless* the customer inquires about them discretely. I remember coming across a three-feet, non-colored ivory statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a store there once over a decade ago. I can no longer recall the price though, only how hard my jaw hit the floor when I heard the shopkeeper tell my mom the price

[barrister]

Wow, what an eye-opener.  At least the government is starting to do something about it.

Mabilis talagang kumilos ang Pinoy pag napintasan ng foreigner ... 

[RU9]

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who also heads the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, released a statement Wednesday emphasising that the church did not approve of any trade in illegal ivory.

He also questioned the veracity of the National Geographic article, saying it "smacks of bias against religious practices", but did not comment on whether the two priests named had indeed possessed illegally obtained ivory.

Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a senior member of the CBCP, said the church owns a collection of ivory statues across the country, but said these were pieces obtained well before an international ban on new ivory was put in place.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/13106-ph-probes-alleged-church-link-to-ivory

[RU9]

Priest suspended on 20-year-old child abuse raps

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been suspended and stripped of his positions in the archdiocese of Cebu on orders of the Vatican while the Holy See investigates accusations he molested altar boys more than 20 years ago in the United States.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/277960/priest-suspended-on-20-year-old-child-abuse-raps

[Prometheus75]

He also questioned the veracity of the National Geographic article, saying it "smacks of bias against religious practices", but did not comment on whether the two priests named had indeed possessed illegally obtained ivory.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/13106-ph-probes-alleged-church-link-to-ivory

So idolatry really is a religious practice in Catholicism, Father?

[Tavus]

So idolatry really is a religious practice in Catholicism, Father?

Santo nino is a form of idolatry. you don't see the catholic chuch outside the Philippines creating Santo nino.

[RU9]

Msgr. Cristobal Garcia crime is pedophilia.

Per Msgr. Achilles Dakay:

“He must have repented and felt sorry for what he did because it was a sin. But the crime remained. Vatican went on investigating it,” Msgr. Achilles Dakay.

“What happened in the States could be a crime. If it was also a sin on his part, it was forgiven. It was repented for.”

Pedophilia - forgiven and repented for.

 http://bit.ly/Qxa9R1

[Ice Storm]

Wow, what an eye-opener.  At least the government is starting to do something about it.

Mabilis talagang kumilos ang Pinoy pag napintasan ng foreigner ... 

Which is sad because if it was a Pinoy who questioned this practice they'd linch him for being a Satanist.

[Tavus]

now i feel like the board is prejudice on people who don't share the catholic faith.

[Ice Storm]

The religious is above the law so long as no good person will set them straight. And what good person would do this if by default he is seen as the "evil atheists" even though he may believe in God.

I find it ludicrous that Pinoys would say our religion is ours and something the west find surprising.

Surprise, surprise Christianity arrived on a Spanish ship from the West.

The only difference is that when it comes to religious beliefs we are 2 centuries removed from Western civilization. Buti nga we have women's rights and people of all races can intermarriage.

I am Roman Catholic and see myself remaining so. It is just that I cannot respect the men and women of the CBCP so long as they keep coddling these sex offenders in their ranks. This is a reason why I do not attend Holy Mass either as the homily has become a staging point for propaganda that is disconnected from the realities of the present. A Church that is more concern about preventing reproductive healthcare from happening than helping the poor and powerless.

I know it is so difficult to find men and women to enter religious service but standards must be higher because the laity by default puts their unquestioning trust in them.

[rusty]

pang NY Times na...

Philippine Priest Facing Scrutiny Over Ivory and Abuse
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/world/asia/philippines-priest-facing-scrutiny-over-ivory-and-abuse.html?_r=1

[RU9]

http://bit.ly/Q8FR3C

Another priest Christy interviewed said he urges his parishioners to buy only new ivory icons to avoid fake antique statues. "It’s part of one’s sacrifice to the Santo Niño," Christy writes, "smuggling elephant ivory as an act of devotion."


Comment by JaePablo:

Smuggling is an act of DEVOTION!

Oh my, whats next? now I know why there were phedos in the history of catholic church, act of DEVOTION!

[rusty]

Ivory probe team blocked from Cebu church
Agence France-Presse
Posted at 09/29/2012 8:47 PM | Updated as of 09/29/2012 8:47 PM
MANILA – Authorities looking for religious statues made from "blood" ivory were prevented from entering a church where the banned items were allegedly kept, a government investigator said Saturday.

A joint team from the Justice Department's investigation bureau and the Environment Department were denied entry to the Shrine of the Black Nazarene in the central island of Cebu when they visited on Friday, a member said.

Security guards at the shrine, set up by a priest allegedly linked to the illegal smuggling of ivory, told investigators they would have to speak to the priest's lawyers first, said Eddie Llamedo, an Environment Department spokesman.

He conceded the team did not have a search warrant at the time and would have to obtain the proper legal papers, possibly giving suspects time to conceal any ivory items.

Asked about the incident, Cebu archdiocese spokesman Monsignor Achilles Dakay said "the lawyers are taking care of that. We will be cooperating (with authorities) but we have church lawyers".

The shrine is maintained by Monsignor Cristobal Garcia, a priest named in a National Geographic article as giving advice on how to smuggle ivory and naming carvers who would turn it into statues.

The article has touched off a nationwide investigation into the smuggling of ivory, and particularly its use in making religious statues in this largely Roman Catholic country.

Philippine authorities on Friday said they had launched a nationwide investigation into Catholic devotees collecting religious figures made of ivory smuggled from Africa.

The probe, initially focused primarily on Garcia, has become an investigation into other owners of ivory figures, amid concerns the trade is extensive, said National Bureau of Investigation's environment division Sixto Comia.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/09/29/12/ivory-probe-team-blocked-cebu-church

[rusty]

Priest caught on cam inside nightclub
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/10/01/12/priest-caught-cam-inside-nightclub

[Nelson de Leon]

Priest caught on cam inside nightclub
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/10/01/12/priest-caught-cam-inside-nightclub

Napanuod ko ito. Parang lumalabas ata, nakikisama lang siya because he was invited and hindi siya makatanggi.

[Prometheus75]

^
Sabi naman nung ibang pari na accused/convited of child abuse. they were "seduced and/or coreced into the act" daw.

Pero kung makapangaral about personal choices and personal responsibility, wagas!

[rusty]

Cardinal wants NatGeo writer banned from PH
http://www.rappler.com/nation/13452-cardinal-wants-natgeo-writer-banned-from-ph

[Prometheus75]

Cardinal wants NatGeo writer banned from PH
http://www.rappler.com/nation/13452-cardinal-wants-natgeo-writer-banned-from-ph

Uhm, wow. Bloated sense of ownership and relevance much, you Liberace stunt double?

Priest caught on cam inside nightclub
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/10/01/12/priest-caught-cam-inside-nightclub

Yikes. Just learned from my former high school classmates na parish priest pala 'to ng alma mater namin, although he assumed his position way past our graduation na. Oh my effing dog

[sardaukar]

Accused molesting priest blamed God

A FORMER Catholic priest accused of molesting boys at a Victorian school told a colleague that "God made us this way and it's his fault", court documents allege.

[Tavus]

Uhm, wow. Bloated sense of ownership and relevance much, you Liberace stunt double?

Yikes. Just learned from my former high school classmates na parish priest pala 'to ng alma mater namin, although he assumed his position way past our graduation na. Oh my effing dog

yuk, so pathetic. so "persona non grata" for exposing the truth all over again. Yes corruption at its worst.