Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church: two former nuns broke the silence and recounted their traumatic experience

The public admission of Pope Francis that priests and bishops had treated nuns as "bad slaves" for decades marks a new chapter in the crisis of badual abuse that plagues the Catholic Church. In this scenario, two former novices were interviewed by the BBC to tell the first person the attacks they suffered.

The sufferings of the nuns in the Church were the subject of the February issue of the women's supplement of the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano", directed by Lucetta Scaraffia. This then led to the clarification of the pontiff on his return trip from the United Arab Emirates to Rome.

The revelations of the Italian newspaper, added to the pope's admission, led to the appearance of direct testimonies reporting these abuses. In the "Woman's Hour" broadcast of BBC Radio, two former nuns were questioned about the attacks they suffered during their stay in the Catholic Church.

Rocío Figueroa is currently a theologian and lecturer. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand, but in Peru.

In her interview with the BBC, she explained that she had joined religious life in adolescence, since she lived in a very poor neighborhood and that she had to "do something" . It is there that he was badually abused by a vicar, designated as his "spiritual guide" by the head of the congregation.

"I was 15. After a few months during which we discussed and sought to gain my trust, one day he asked everyone who was training with him to attend a clbad Finally, we went to personal sessions during which he said he was going to help me develop control of myself about my baduality, "Figueroa explained.

"I was very naive, I had no previous experience." He started to touch me and I thought (wrongly) that it was fine and that I was the bad guy, I felt guilty and disoriented, "he continued. "He never raped me, but he mistreated me, I could not realize that until I turned 40," he added.

Figueroa said that she had decided to talk after the death of the man who had mistreated her, knowing that he was considered a saint in his community, and she wanted to know the truth who he was.

The other former nun who spoke about abuses suffered within the Catholic Church was the German Doris Wagner-Reisinger.

In her story, the badual abuse was preceded by what she calls a "spiritual abuse": "They would not let me read anything or talk to anyone, I lost confidence in myself." me and I became a weak person ".

"Five years after entering the seminary, a priest from the congregation began to approach me each time I saw myself alone, then he started to enter my room and he stayed there to talk", explains Wagner-Reisinger. "With time, he started to kiss me, then he came and, without saying anything, he took off my clothes and started to rape me," he continued.

"I was in shock, I understood what was going on, but I could not believe it, I knew it was wrong and I did not want it to happen, but I was convinced: it's a priest, it's a sacred community, it's impossible, "he confessed," and be able to talk about it. "

"I had a serious crisis of faith." My first impulse was to think that if I said something, I would hurt the church, and God wants me to shut up. unbearable ", concludes Wagner-Reisinger. "I do not have to believe in that kind of God."

Wagner-Reisinger finally met and fell in love with another priest and left religious life in 2011.

Source: Clarín

CM