MANILA (Reuters) - Asia's largest Roman Catholic Church publicly apologised on Wednesday for the sins of paedophiles and other sexual deviants in its fold, and said transgressors would be punished.
"We apologise, we are sorry," Monsignor Hernando Coronel, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said at a news conference, reacting to media reports of sexual offences among some members of the most influential church in the country.
Reports of misconduct by some Filipino priests, including cases of paedophilia and concubinage, have begun appearing in Manila's media in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal rocking the church in the United States.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer has this week reported one case of a paedophile priest in the country and several instances of clergymen living with women in violation of their vows.
Father Socrates Villegas, spokesman for the country's biggest diocese, Manila, estimated the number of errant priests in the Philippines at "1.6 percent or even lower", and said the church should be judged by those who lived by its preachings and not by those who did not.
"We are always in the pursuit of truth," Villegas said, referring to allegations of sex offences by priests. "We will investigate if needed. We seek justice at all times. Penalties will be duly served."
Coronel, secretary-general of the CBCP, said penalties for past sexual offenders among priests, such as those living with women, had included expulsions.
"A FEW CASES ONLY"
"We believe that these cases represent a few cases only, a minority...We don't have statistics for this," he said, when asked how many local priests had committed sexual offences, including paedophilia.
"If a crime was committed, the church will not stand in the way. We will not stand in the way of justice," Coronel added.
He said the CBCP, composed of about 100 bishops who represent the church hierarchy, would meet in July to draw up a protocol or a set of guidelines governing sexual conduct of clerics.
The protocol would apply not only to paedophiles but also homosexuals and "priest fathers", he said.
"We are trying to discourage the creation, if possible in the seminaries, of a gay sub-culture. We are heterosexuals," Coronel said.
Catholics account for about 80 to 85 percent of the Philippines' 77 million population, Protestants about 8 to 10 percent and Muslims about five percent.
Despite controversies that have rocked the Catholic church in the Philippines before, including its alleged accumulation of vast wealth in a country where many wallow in poverty, it has remained a powerful institution and millions continue to flock to churches on Sundays.
Its top prelate, Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin, played a key role in mobilising protest rallies which led to the ouster of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a "people power" revolt in 1986 and of then president Joseph Estrada in a popular uprising in January 2000.