Vatican magazine denounces sexual abuse of nuns by priests

[JustJohn or JJ]

Vatican magazine denounces sexual abuse of nuns by priests

NICOLE WINFIELD    February 1, 2019

In this , Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 file photo, Lucetta Scaraffia, editor in chief of "Women Church World"

a monthly magazine distributed alongside the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, poses for portraits

in her house in Rome.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's women's magazine is denouncing the sexual abuse of nuns by priests — and the resulting "scandal" of religious sisters having abortions or giving birth to children who are then not recognized by their fathers.

The February issue of "Women Church World," a monthly magazine distributed alongside the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, was published Friday. It cited Pope Francis' own analysis of abuse by saying clerical power was at the root of the problem.

It said nuns have been silenced for years by fear of retaliation against themselves or their orders if they report the priests who molested them.

The publication marks a significant public acknowledgment from inside the Vatican of the problem that the Holy See has long known about but has done next to nothing to address.

Last year, after The Associated Press and other media reported on the scandal, the international association of women's religious orders urged sisters to report abuse to police and their superiors, a significant shattering of the silence that has long kept the problem secret.

In the article, editor Lucetta Scaraffia notes that for centuries women in the church have been depicted as "dangerous and temptresses," which has complicated the acceptance within the Catholic hierarchy that they can be victims of unwanted sexual advances by priests.

"But here Pope Francis' analysis about abuse can be of some help: If you point to power, to clericalism, the abuse against religious sisters takes on another aspect and can finally be recognized for what it is: that is an act of power in which touch becomes a violation of one's personal intimacy," she wrote.

The article noted that reports written by religious sisters were presented to Vatican officials in the 1990s about the problem of priests sexually abusing nuns in Africa — they were considered "safe" partners at the height of the HIV crisis.

While little or nothing changed, sisters from the developing world and also wealthier countries are beginning to denounce their abuse as part of an overall demand for greater power for women in the church — part of the #MeToo reckoning.

"If the church continues to close its eyes to the scandal — made even worse by the fact that abuse of women brings about procreation and is therefore at the origin of forced abortions and children who aren't recognized by priests — the condition of oppression of women in the church will never change," Scaraffia wrote.

"Women Church World," which is published in Italian, French and Spanish, last year made headlines with an issue devoted to "work" and an article denouncing how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay. The current edition was dedicated to the sense of "touch" and how it can be perverted.

In an opening editorial, one of Italy's leading Jewish intellectuals, Anna Foa, said the abuse scandal had transformed that most fundamental aspect of love — the caress — "into an expression in and of itself suspect and practically obscene."

Foa also cites Francis' own words in "thanking journalists who were honest and objective in discovering predator priests and made the voices of victims heard."

[karl]

This seems to never end, the sexual exploits that go on behind closed walls. It is natures way with males, this is an imprint that nature insures the continuation of the species. It seems the church authority has never studied biology. It is natural for in an enclosed society such as this church, there is no out let for the natural means of procreation, that the males will then seek the company of nearest females and in this case, nuns.

Nature has her ways in spite the efforts of man to defeat her.

Karl

[JustJohn or JJ]

Nuns 'sex slaves' scandal fresh blow to Catholic church
Ella IDE

AFP News 5 February 2019

Pope Francis's public admission that priests have used nuns as "sexual slaves" marks a new chapter

in the crisis rocking the church

Pope Francis's public admission that priests have used nuns as "sexual slaves" -- and may still be doing so -- marks a new chapter in the abuse crisis rocking the Catholic church.

"It is the first time that the pope, but also the church as an institution, has publicly admitted this abuse is taking place, and that's hugely important," Lucetta Scaraffia, editor of the Vatican's women's magazine, told AFP on Wednesday.

The pontiff on Tuesday said Catholic priests and bishops had been sexually abusing nuns, and that his predecessor Benedict XVI had dissolved a religious order of women because of "sexual slavery on the part of priests and the founder".

The Church has "suspended several clerics" and the Vatican has been "working (on the issue) for a long time," he said.

The abuse was "still going on, because it's not something that just goes away like that. On the contrary," he added.

The nuns scandal broke as the Catholic church has had to contend with a wave of cases involving pedophile priests in countries worldwide from Ireland and the United States to Australia.

The papal admission followed a rare outcry last week from the Vatican's women's magazine, "Women Church World", over the rape of nuns, leaving them feeling forced to have abortions or raise children not recognized by their priest fathers.

- 'Silence enables rapists' -

"Many complaints have been filed with the Vatican and have not been followed up," said Scaraffia, who raised the issue in the February issue of "Women Church World", a supplement distributed with the Vatican's Osservatore Romano newspaper.

"I very much hope that a commission will be set up to investigate, and that nuns expert in the issue will be called to take part," she told AFP.

"They could move quickly with trials, and above all raise awareness because silence is what allows rapists to continue to rape," she added.

Scaraffia said the clerical abuse of nuns was a global issue, but one particularly prevalent in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Reports of such abuse are known to have been made from Chile to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, India, Kenya, Peru and the Ukraine.

Those abused "do not find it easy to speak out. They fear retaliation against them and their congregations," Scaraffia said.

She said the issue was abusive power relationships, with clerics controlling everything from nuns' vocations to their salaries.

"It's a very difficult situation which has its roots in the nuns' dependence within the church. They are not recognised as equals."

- 'Strip priests of power' -

The congregation of nuns dissolved under Benedict was the Sisters Mariales d'Israel, a spokesman for the parent order said.

Francis said Benedict had attempted to look into the order before he become pope. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he had headed the Vatican department that investigates sexual abuse, but his efforts had been "blocked".

Francis did not say by whom.

The Argentine pontiff also alluded to an ongoing investigation into another community, without naming it, but believed to be the Community of St. Jean in France.

That community admitted in 2013 that the priest who founded it had behaved "in ways that went against chastity" with several women in the order, according to French Catholic newspaper La Croix.

Francis's admission of the problem was "the umpteenth blow to the church's image, but also an occasion to show that change really is underway," Scaraffia said.

The key is "to strip priests of their air of power, which is what allows them to behave this way".

She admitted there was "great resistance" to investigating abuse claims within the church and uncovering predator priests, but added that there had initially been reluctance to address the clerical pedophilia crisis, "but that was overcome".

[JustJohn or JJ]

I am not sure what I think of these priests. There are so many issues with the church regarding sex and homosexuality.

Nuns in India protest alleged rape of a nun by bishop

Nuns in India are protesting on behalf of a fellow nun who was allegedly raped 13 times by a bishop. He denies the charges.

At a time when the Catholic church is facing a tide of sexual abuse allegations, many are asking why nuns' complaints in India are met with silence.

Yogita Limaye reports from Kerala for BBC News at Ten

21 Feb 2019

www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-4

[Jaga]

John,

these are important and difficult subjects and I hope that these reports would lead to the internal church healing. I still believe that the nun's abuse was happening mainly in other cultures (India, Africa) rather than in the European church.
There is much more that have to be done, like letting women to have more equal role in the church. The Catholic Church has a strictly paternalistic structure.