IRELAND
Irish Independent
JEROME REILLY
A LEADING campaigner on sexual abuse of adult women by the clergy says she has been contacted by ten women from the Republic including a nun who were sexually exploited by their priests.
And Margaret Kennedy says what is portrayed as an "affair" between women and their priests is often just sexual exploitation and misconduct by a clergyman in a position of power over a vulnerable parishioner. It's nothing like the cosy love affair depicted in the 1983 melodrama The Thorn Birds where a young woman has a passionate relationship with a young Catholic priest played by Richard Chamberlain.
The sexual exploitation often happens to women in distress, suffering from depression or facing some crisis in their lives who go to their priest for help or seeking spiritual direction.
"Other women have been attacked, grabbed, kissed or fondled without consent. Some women were in the parish, not seeking individual help, but the priest simply honed in on them for special attention," she says
Ms Kennedy has spent more than six years researching her PhD "Clergy sexual exploitation and abuse of adult women".