BishopAccountability.org
	Church Memos Detail Reports of Nuns' Abuse Vatican Was Told in '90s of Incidents, Said Problem Was Isolated By Brooks Egerton The Dallas Morning News [United States] March 6, 2006 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/ religion/stories/030706dnproasylumside.d405b30.html Vatican officials were advised repeatedly in the 1990s that priests and bishops were sexually abusing nuns, according to a 2001 National Catholic Reporter story. The Vatican responded by acknowledging publicly that "the problem is known and is restricted to a geographically limited area," which it did not identify. The Vatican said it was "dealing with the question" and urged people not to forget "the frequently heroic fidelity of the great majority" of priests and nuns. Below are excerpts from two of the leaked church memos that formed the basis of the Reporter's story. (See www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/documents/africadocuments.htm for more details.) The nuns who wrote the memos consider them confidential and declined to talk to The Dallas Morning News, spokeswomen for their religious orders said. In one memo, Sister Marie McDonald, a longtime leader of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, focused on African nuns. "Sexual harassment and even rape of sisters by priests and bishops is allegedly common," she wrote. "Sometimes, when a sister becomes pregnant, the priest insists that she have an abortion. The sister is usually dismissed from her congregation while the priest is often only moved to another parish – or sent for studies." Sister McDonald listed some of the causes of the problem: • "Celibacy/chastity is not a value in many countries." • "It seems that a sister finds it impossible to refuse a priest who asks for sexual favours. She has been educated to regard herself as inferior, to be subservient and to obey ... [clerics who] have received a much more advanced theological formation than the sisters. They may use false theological arguments ... [such as]: 'We are both consecrated celibates. That means that we have promised not to marry. However, we can have sex together without breaking our vows.' " • "The AIDS pandemic has meant that sisters are more sought after by the clergy than before because they are thought to be 'safe.' " • "Student sisters who are sent abroad to Rome (and elsewhere in Europe and [the] U.S.) for studies often have special difficulties. One of these is that of finding suitable accommodation. ... These sisters frequently turn to seminarians and priests for help ... Sexual favours are, sometimes, the payment they have to make for such help. ... Sisters can sometimes be only too willing and can also be naive." • "Perhaps another contributing cause is the 'conspiracy of silence' surrounding this issue." In a separate memo, Sister Maura O'Donohue, a member of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, spoke of her extensive travel in Africa and elsewhere and of the "many confidences shared with me by a great number of sisters." "It is important to stress that what is presented here is not generalised behaviour but occurs time and time again in a familiar pattern. It does not apply to any single country or even continent, nor indeed to any one group or all members of society. In fact the following examples derive from experience over a six-year period and relate to incidents in some 23 countries in five continents." Among the examples she cited: • "Candidates to religious life [have] to provide sexual favours to priests so as to acquire the necessary certificates and/or recommendations." • When a pregnant nun is expelled from her congregation, she "is left to raise the child in a single-parent family, often with a great deal of stigmatisation, and frequently in very poor socio-circumstances." • "Some priests are recommending that sisters take a contraceptive, misleading them that 'the pill' will prevent transmission of HIV." • "Some Catholic medical professionals employed in Catholic hospitals have reported pressure being exerted on them by priests to procure abortions in those hospitals for religious sisters." • "After 29 sisters of a diocesan congregation had become pregnant by priests in the diocese, the superior general complained to the archbishop. Shortly afterwards she and her councillors were dismissed at a public function by the archbishop."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.