I wrote awhile back about allegations of sexual predation by monks in U.S. Theravada temples. This weekend two Thai Theravadin temples -- Wat Dhammaram in Chicago and Pramuan Simsriwatna in Long Beach, California -- were picketed by members of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).
Both protests involved the case of Camnong Boa-Ubol, a monk accused of sexually abusing at least two adolescent girls and fathering a child with one of them while at the Chicago temple. Boa-Ubol evaded criminal charges by leaving Wat Dhammaram and moving to Pramuan Simsriwatna. The sangha in Chicago said Boa-Ubol had returned to Thailand and appear not to have known he was in California.
I have emailed SNAP to find out if the organization consulted the young women and their families before engaging in the picketing. SNAP also claims that Boa-Ubol admitted to his superiors in Chicago that he had sexual intercourse, and I doubt that is true. Such an admission is supposed to result in immediate expulsion from the monastic sangha.
It's more likely, IMO, that Boa-Ubol denied to superiors that he had broken his celibacy vows, and the sangha is politely not looking at evidence (including a paternity test, the news stories say) that suggest otherwise. I also suspect that even if the superiors think the allegations could true, they might still be reluctant to expel him from the sangha for something he denies doing. I'd love to hear from someone with experience in Thai Buddhist temples on this point; I'm just speculating.
Part of the issue is that there is no authority overseeing the various Theravadin temples in the U.S., and certainly no authority deciding what monks are assigned to what temples. Monks are free agents who can who choose to move from one temple to another without anyone's permission.
Monks really can skip town without leaving a forwarding address, in other words. The Chicago temple may have honestly not known where Boa-Ubol was after he left.
However, it's not a bad thing to impress on the temples that monks accused of sexual abuse of minors must be turned over to the criminal justice system, not allowed to skip to another temple, or even back to Asia.
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