Page 10 - aruba-today-20180728

A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 28 July 2018
Vatican meets #MeToo: Nuns denounce priests who abused them

ways say 'she wanted it,'"
Demasure said.
Demasure said many
priests in Africa, for exam-
ple, struggle with tradition-
al and cultural beliefs in the
importance of having chil-
dren. Novices are particu-
larly vulnerable because
they often need a letter
from their parish priest to
be accepted into certain
religious congregations.
"And sometimes they have
to pay for that," she said.
And when these women
become pregnant?
"Mainly, she has an abor-
tion. Even more than once.
And he pays for that. A re-
ligious sister has no money.
A priest, yes," she said.
There can also be a price
for blowing the whistle.
In 2013, the Rev. Antho-
ny Musaala in Kampala,
Uganda, wrote a letter to
members of the local Cath-
olic establishment about
"numerous cases" of al-
leged sex liaisons of priests,
including with nuns. He was
suspended until he issued
In this Sunday, April 1, 2018 file photo, nuns are silhouetted in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. an apology in May, even
Associated Press though Ugandan newspa-
pers regularly report cases
By NICOLE WINFIELD when there is an imbalance public on national televi- punish offenders and care of priests caught in sex es-
RODNEY MUHUMUZA of power in a relationship. sion with their stories of for victims. A Vatican of- capades.
Associated Press The sisters are going public abuse by priests and other ficial said it is up to local Archbishop John Bap-
VATICAN CITY (AP) — in part to denounce years nuns — and how their supe- church leaders to sanction tist Odama, leader of the
Revelations that a promi- of inaction by church lead- riors did nothing to stop it. priests who sexually abuse Ugandan conference of
nent U.S. cardinal sexually ers, even after major stud- A nun in India recently sisters. bishops, told the AP that al-
abused and harassed his ies on the problem in Africa filed a formal police com- The official, who spoke on legations against individual
adult seminarians have ex- were reported to the Vati- plaint accusing a bishop condition of anonymity be- priests should not be used
posed an egregious abuse can in the 1990s. of rape, something that cause he wasn't authorized to smear the whole church.
of power that has shocked "It opened a great wound would have been unthink- to speak on the issue, said "Individual cases must be
Catholics on both sides of inside of me," one nun able even a year ago. And the church has focused treated as individual cas-
the Atlantic. But the Vati- told the AP. "I pretended it cases in Africa have come much of its attention on es," he said.
can has long been aware didn't happen." up periodically; in 2013, protecting children, but The reports in the 1990s
of its heterosexual equiva- Wearing a full religious hab- for example, a well-known that vulnerable adults "de- were prepared by mem-
lent — the sexual abuse of it and clutching her rosary, priest in Uganda wrote a serve the same protection." bers of religious orders
nuns by priests and bishops the woman broke nearly letter to his superiors that "Consecrated women for top church officials. In
— and done little to stop it, two decades of silence to mentioned "priests romanti- have to be encouraged 1994, the late Sr. Maura
an Associated Press analy- tell AP about the moment cally involved with religious to speak up when they are O'Donohue wrote about a
sis has found. in 2000 when the priest to sisters" — for which he was molested," the official told six-year, 23-nation survey,
An examination by the AP whom she was confessing promptly suspended from AP. "Bishops have to be in which she learned of 29
shows that cases of abused her sins forced himself on the church until he apolo- encouraged to take them nuns who had been im-
nuns have emerged in Eu- her, mid-sacrament. gized in May. seriously, and make sure pregnated in a single con-
rope, Africa, South America The assault — and a sub- "I am so sad that it took so the priests are punished if gregation.
and Asia, demonstrating sequent advance by a long for this to come into guilty." Nuns, she reported, were
that the problem is global different priest a year later the open, because there But being taken seriously is considered "safe" sexual
and pervasive, thanks to — led her to stop going to were reports long ago," Kar- often the toughest obsta- partners for priests fear-
the sisters' second-class sta- confession with any priest lijn Demasure, one of the cle for sisters who are sexu- ing infection with HIV from
tus in the church and their other than her spiritual fa- church's leading experts ally abused, said Dema- prostitutes or other women.
ingrained subservience to ther, who lives in a different on clergy sexual abuse and sure, until recently execu- The reports were never
the men who run it. country. abuse of power, told AP in tive director of the church's meant to be made pub-
Yet some nuns are now The extent of the abuse of an interview. Center for Child Protection lic, but the U.S. National
finding their voices, buoyed nuns is unclear, at least out- The Vatican declined to at the Pontifical Grego- Catholic Reporter put them
by the #MeToo movement side the Vatican. However, comment on what mea- rian University, the church's online in 2001. To date, the
and the growing recogni- this week, about half a doz- sures, if any, it has taken leading think tank on the is- Vatican hasn't said what,
tion that even adults can en sisters in a small religious to assess the scope of the sue. if anything, it ever did with
be victims of sexual abuse congregation in Chile went problem globally, or to "They (the priests) can al- the information.q