Sexual Abuse of Sisters: Another Church Scandal Enlightens

ROME – The badual abuse of nuns by Catholic priests and bishops – as well as the resulting abortions – have been overshadowed for years by other scandals of the Roman Catholic Church.

This situation seems to have changed this week when Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the problem for the first time.

"That made me very happy," said Lucetta Scaraffia, the author of an article denouncing the abuses suffered by religious nuns and laymen dedicated to religion by priests, published this month. in a magazine, Mujeres Iglesia Mundo. It is distributed with the Vatican newspaper.

Scaraffia said from her apartment in Rome, turned into a television studio filled with international reporters, said, "Finally, many women will now have the courage to talk about this topic and denounce their abusers."

The pope's comments of February 5, in response to a question posed in the papal plane about the Scaraffia article, came decades after the persistent allegations of this type of abuse and misuse. the seeming pbadivity of the Vatican, which has come up against the intensification of the consciousness of the era of the # MeToo movement. They also arrive shortly before the extraordinary bishops' congress on badual abuse to be held next month at the Vatican.

However, what caught the attention of the world was the dramatic description – and imprecise, according to a statement issued on February 6 by the Vatican – that made the pope an example of such abuses in calling it "slavery" badual".

"Speaking of the dissolution of a congregation, the Holy Father spoke of" badual slavery "speaking of" manipulation ", said Wednesday the spokesman of Pope Alessandro Gisotti in a statement to reporters .

Defenders of the nuns who were abused felt the relief that the Pope had put the issue in the view of the Church. However, they also pointed out that it was a situation that was taking a lot of time and that the other comments made on Tuesday by the pope did not inspire the badurance that 39, a quick solution would be found.

In his typical improvisational tone, Francisco acknowledged that there are "priests and bishops" who badually badaulted nuns and that "this continues to happen because it does not go away once you realize his existence". He said that the church should do more.

However, although he tried to demonstrate that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, had taken strict measures regarding badual violence against nuns, he recalled a separate case involving women of a corrupt religious order. by badual corruption. and economic

Francisco reported that Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the watchdog of the doctrine of the Church, had gathered all his testimony against the accomplice order during a meeting with Pope John Paul II. Francisco said Benedict came back defeated and told his secretary, "He has won the other side". Francisco added in an annotation on the margin: "This should not scandalize us, it is part of a process".

His point of view seems to be that the search for justice in the Church takes time and he explained that when Benedict became pope, he immediately asked his secretary to take the records "and he started" to work.

However, his example confused the defenders of the nuns who were victims of violence on the part of the priests, who emphasized that the pope is the only person in the Church who has absolute power to act.

"I wonder what you mean when you've been dealing with the problem for a long time, because we do not know what you're referring to," said Zuzanna Flisowska, Executive Director of Voices of Faith, a group that wants greater participation . Women in Lay Leadership Positions in the Church

"We are a little disappointed that it is the media that is pressuring the Church and the pope to make their comments," he added.

Experts say that many factors contribute to the abuse, its concealment and the lack of measures within the Vatican.

Karlijn Demasure, former executive director of the Center for the Protection of Minors of the Pontifical Gregorian University of the Church, where she is a professor and expert in badual violence against minors and children. 39, vulnerable adults, did not provide data on the magnitude of the problem. However, he added that anecdotal evidence suggests that "it is not exceptional".

According to the experts, many members of the Church have a medieval mentality and consider that the priests who commit abuses against the nuns are the victims of seductive women who try them. According to the experts, since the victims of these cases are adults, there is also a reflexive tendency to blame them. The reductionist public image of the nun as an entity that exists to serve the priest and pray silently also minimizes those who dare to make their voices heard.

According to Demasure, abuses often occur in a spiritual guidance relationship in which the priest establishes an emotional bond with the victim over time, as is often the case in cases of badual abuse of minors .

The apparent preponderance of this type of abuse in Africa and India has led church members to attribute this abuse to cultural differences.

In many cases, badual favors have been sought from nuns who depend economically on priests

and the traditions of servility in women make them vulnerable to abuse.

Scaraffia said that he shared the pope's criticisms of the abuses, that it is a root of clerical culture that gives priests the feeling that they have a superior authority and so they have the right to do what they want. make them happy with their parishioners. In developing countries, where the prevalence of abuse of nuns seems to be more prevalent, priests tend to place themselves on even higher bases.

Demasure pointed out the delicate problem of upper mothers who have concealed the abuse suffered by their nuns to protect the reputation of the Church, as did bishops with pedophile priests.

"I'm afraid this is a similar situation," said Demasure.

As well as not ringing the alarm bells. Since the nineties, members of religious orders have prepared private reports on the subject for senior Vatican officials.

In 1994, Sr. Maura O. Donohue sent to the Vatican the results of a multi-year survey conducted by 23 nations on this type of abuse, particularly prevalent in Africa, where nuns were considered as badual partners less risky for priests fearing to be infected. HIV

A 1998 report focusing on Africa noted that "badual harbadment and even rape of sisters by priests and bishops is an alleged common situation".

"When a sister is pregnant, the priest insists on an abortion," the report adds. "The congregation usually expels the sister while the priest is often transferred only to another parish or sent to study."

At that time, the African bishops who received this information condemned the report of abuse and called it "unfair".

Among the private denunciations of nuns in the 1990s – which were published in a cover story in The National Catholic Reporter in 2001 – one claimed that twenty-nine nuns had become pregnant in a single order.

Demasure noted that there was first-hand evidence of these abortions, which would violate one of the central tenets of the Church's teachings, but made it clear that there was no evidence of abortion. had no information on its extent.

However, it is clear that the problem has not been eliminated.

In 2013, the Reverend Anthony Musaala, a priest from Kampala, Uganda, was suspended and forced to apologize for drawing attention to the badual relations that his confreres had with women, including men and women. religious.

In India, Bishop Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of Jalandhar, is now facing repeated rape charges from the mother of a congregation. Although Mulakkal denied these accusations, more than eighty nuns signed a letter in July asking them to expel them from pastoral work.

Scaraffia said the abuse of nuns was "not only in the third world".

"It happens everywhere," he accused. "It's happening in Europe."

In a survey conducted this summer, Nicole Winfield, the Associated Press reporter who asked about the papal plane's abuse of the pontiff, documented cases of abuse on at least four continents.

In November, the International Union of the Superiors General (UISG), the organization that represents the religious orders of Catholic women in the world, issued an extraordinary statement in which it called the religious women victims of abuse to report it and report it. to the Church and to state authorities.

"If the UISG receives a report of abuse, we will be present to listen," the statement said.

"We condemn those who support the culture of silence and secrecy, often under the pretext of" protecting "the reputation of an institution, or who call it" part of its culture, "the statement said.

In December, the Vatican opened an investigation into the sisters of the Good Samaritan, a small religious order of women in Chile, after Chilean national television revealed that some of the sisters had been expelled after reporting badual violence against priests and children. the bad treatment of his superior.

In preparing for her next interview in Rome, Scaraffia mentioned that she felt that she was gaining ground and that she was confident that now "the Pope understands the problem". He added: "This is surely the first step."

* Copyright: 2019 The New York Times News Service