Unholy Silence: From Bangkok to Galway, the Global Reckoning of Religious Abuse

 

In July 2025, Thailand’s Buddhist establishment was rocked by revelations that nine senior monks had been disrobed following a sprawling sex and blackmail scandal. At the centre was Wilawan “Sika Golf” Emsawat, accused of seducing and extorting clergy across multiple provinces. Police uncovered over 80,000 explicit images and videos, implicating monks from revered temples. 

The fallout has triggered calls for financial transparency and stricter oversight of monastic conduct.

Thai Buddhism facing several scandals in recent years:

* Phra Khom Embezzlement Case (2023) Suitcases of cash and gold bars were discovered at Wat Pa Thammakhiri. Phra Khom was sentenced to 468 years for embezzling over $12 million in temple donations.

* Methamphetamine Raids (2021–2024) Multiple temples were raided for drug use. In Chumphon, all monks at Wat Khao Kaeo tested positive for meth and were disrobed.

* Jet-Set Monk Wirapol Sukphol (2013) Viral video showed him in a private jet with luxury goods. Later convicted of money laundering and sexual abuse

They’re all snapshots not just of Buddhism but of a global crisis in spiritual integrity.

• In Bangkok, monks walk barefoot for rice at dawn — while others hoard wealth and fall to scandal, their robes traded for Rolexes and amulet sales.

• In Los Angeles, Pope Leo XIV’s “Mass for Creation” is shadowed by immigration raids, forcing churches to offer sanctuary instead of sacrament.

• In Palestine, Christians — the “living stones” of the faith — are bombed, buried, and forgotten, even as they guard the birthplace of Christ. A bombing raid on Palestine's only Catholic Church just today leaves 2 dead.

• In Myanmar, monasteries and churches alike are bombed by the junta. Buddhist monks and Catholic priests shelter civilians, only to be targeted themselves.

This isn’t just about religion. It’s about power, silence, and the cost of complicity.

This Thai scandal, though shocking enough to be featured in UK's Sky News and Daily Express as well as Bangkok Post, resonates far afield as is not isolated. It echoes decades of abuse within Christian institutions — particularly the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion — where systemic failures allowed paedophiles to operate under the guise of spiritual authority. 

In England, nearly 400 Church of England figures were convicted of child sex offences between the 1940s and 2018. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found that forgiveness was often weaponised to shield perpetrators, while victims were left unsupported. Echoes of the debate on women priests still echo around Canterbury Cathedral in East Kent and heard in Notre Dame and The Vatican.

And the Catholic Church’s record is equally damning. In Ireland, the excavation of a mass grave in Tuam has begun this week, where the remains of up to 796 infants are believed to be buried beneath a former mother-and-baby home run by Catholic nuns. 

These children — born to unmarried mothers and deemed unworthy of dignity — were discarded in a disused septic tank. The state-backed investigation revealed that 9,000 children died across 18 such homes nationwide, exposing a legacy of cruelty cloaked in religious piety.

The Catholic Church tainted with financial scandal familiar to viewers of Godfather 3:

* Cardinal Becciu’s €200M scandal: embezzling Peter’s Pence funds for luxury investments.

* London property fiasco: Vatican lost ~$200M in a botched Sloane Avenue deal.

* Banco Ambrosiano collapse: Linked to Vatican Bank and Mafia; chairman Calvi found dead in London.

* Monsignor Scarano bust: Vatican accountant caught smuggling €20M in a private jet.

* Money laundering flagged: JP Morgan froze accounts after €1.5B moved in 18 months.

* Tax evasion via chapel loophole: Saved €4B by falsely claiming buildings had chapels - similar to Anglican frauds over £19M income on Glebe Land in UK or land titles in Uganda.

* Audit obstruction: Vatican officials blocked PwC review; 70+ opaque accounts found.

* Foreign spy blind spot: No laws prevented espionage or financial manipulation inside Vatican structures and City State.

What binds all these cases is not just the horror of abuse, but the institutional reflex to conceal, deflect, and delay justice. Whether in Bangkok temples, English cathedrals, or Irish convents, the pattern is familiar: moral authority used to silence dissent, protect reputations, and perpetuate harm.

Yet, there is movement. 

Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau has launched a national hotline to report monk misconduct. The Church of England has committed to independent safeguarding oversight. Ireland’s forensic excavation in Tuam — a world-first — aims to identify and rebury the children with dignity, while survivors demand legal accountability and reparations.

These are not just scandals; they are inflection points. 

They challenge us to rethink the architecture of faith institutions — not to dismantle belief, but to demand transparency, justice, and reform. The question is no longer whether abuse occurred, but whether we will confront the systems that enabled it. Indeed to build a bigger church for all faiths.

From Bangkok’s temples to Tuam’s burial pits, the message is clear: silence is complicity. And the reckoning has only just begun.