Fil-Am allegedly abused by Pinoy priest sues LA Archdiocese

LOS ANGELES – A 34 year-old Filipina has sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in what is believed to be the first civil suit against the country's largest Catholic diocese since California passed a law last month that extends the statute of limitations for child abuse survivors.

Aimee Galicia-Torres said she was only 8 years old when a Filipino priest who was also a family friend molested her at an aunt’s house. The sexual abuse went on for four years.

According to the suit, the LA's Archdiocese was negligent in the hiring and supervision of Galicia-Torres’ alleged abuser - Father Honesto Bismonte - and that there could have been a cover-up when church leaders knew about his actions.

Galicia Torres said that by speaking up, she felt a sense of hope she hasn’t felt in a long time.

“I felt like a huge weight was lifted off me. Finally, my voice was being heard. I want him, my abuser, to know I’m the one doing this to him. I want to take back my power that I lost when he abused me,” she said.

Ordained in the Philippines in 1954, Bismonte came to California in 1981 and served in churches in Los Angeles, Gardena and Pomona. 

In 2002, Bismonte was removed from the ministry after being arrested and charged with molesting two young girls more than 50 times.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and ended up serving two years of informal probation.

According to the updated 2018 Archdiocese Report to the People of God that lists priests who had been publicly accused of sexual abuse, the 90-year old Bismonte has been retired with no faculties to minister.

While the lawsuit does not specify any dollar amount, this Filipina wants answers.

“Why was he allowed to transfer from the Philippines knowing that he had some sort of relationship with some underage kid? I want to know how he was transferred from the Philippines to the United States, how many people knew about it and how and if this could’ve been prevented,” she said.

The California’s Child Victims Act extends the statute of limitations allowing more sexual abuse survivors to come forward with lawsuits.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of LA said it was not yet aware of the lawsuit filed against them, however they reiterated they took appropriate actions against Bismonte after his 2002 molestation case. The Archdiocese also stressed that Bismonte remains out of the ministry and is now living privately in an assisted living facility. 

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source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tagalog-speaking Indonesian priest helps Pinoys in Japan

MORIOKA, Japan - Father Antonius Harnoko, an Indonesia missionary in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, is offering psychological and spiritual support to foreign residents in the northeastern Japan region ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

Harnoko, 42, is especially helpful to Filipino residents as he speaks Tagalog and holds Masses in the language at the local churches he visits.

"Masses in Tagalog make me feel calm," says a 37-year-old Filipino woman working at a nursing-care facility in Ofunato. "I didn't expect them in Japan."

Harnoko learned Tagalog while studying in the Philippines and came to Japan in 1998 to become a Catholic priest. Working as a missionary in Tokyo and Osaka, he temporarily returned to Indonesia in December 2004 shortly before a devastating earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra later in the month, claiming 220,000 lives.

Harnoko was in Java at the time and watched the catastrophe on television. "As I had to return to Japan for my church work, I could only pray to God," he recalls.

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, Harnoko applied for a transfer to the damaged region from Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan and was allowed to move to Iwate in November the same year.

The regret he felt at doing nothing after the Sumatra earthquake prompted him to seek the transfer.

In the month after the transfer, Harnoko held a Mass in Tagalog at a community center in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture, for the congregation of a local church damaged by the disaster. Throughout the Mass, some Filipino participants were weeping for fear of radiation contamination from the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Filipino visitors to a church Harnoko is assigned to in Ofunato are increasing because they can express their worries to him in their native language.

On weekends, Harnoko drives his car to churches in Aomori, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures to offer Masses in Tagalog and listen to worries voiced by Filipino residents.

Foreigners in the disaster-damaged area cannot recover so easily because of cultural and linguistic barriers, Harnoko says, adding, "I will stay here for them."

==Kyodo

source: abs-cbnnews.com