In the light of the last post, about the dependence of morality on religion, this news story from The Independent is worth noting….
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Wednesday, 21st March 2011
The Catholic Church in Rome made the extraordinary admission yesterday that it is aware priests from at least 23 countries have been sexually abusing nuns.
Most of the abuse has occurred in Africa, where priests vowed to celibacy, who previously sought out prostitutes, have preyed on nuns to avoid contracting the Aids virus.Confidential Vatican reports obtained by the National Catholic Reporter, a weekly magazine in the US, have revealed that members of the Catholic clergy have been exploiting their financial and spiritual authority to gain sexual favours from nuns, particularly those from the Third World who are more likely to be culturally conditioned to be subservient to men.
The reports, some of which are recent and some of which have been in circulation for at least seven years, said that such priests had demanded sex in exchange for favours, such as certification to work in a given diocese.
In extreme instances, the priests had made nuns pregnant and then encouraged them to have abortions.
The US article was based on five documents, which senior women from religious orders and priests have presented to the Vatican over the past decade. They describe a particularly bad situation in Africa. In a continent devastated by Aids, nuns, along with early adolescent girls, are perceived by some as safe sexual targets. The reports said that the church authorities had done little to tackle the problem.
The Vatican reports cited countless cases of nuns forced to have sex with priests. Some were obliged to take the pill, others became pregnant and were encouraged to have abortions. In one case in which an African sister was forced to have an abortion, she died during the operation and her aggressor led the funeral mass. Another case involved 29 sisters from the same congregation who all became pregnant to priests in the diocese.
Read more ….
In an earlier post “Look at Japan. It’s a direct answer to all our prayers.” a commenter, Kevin, said:
“Why any woman is a practicing Catholic is beyond me.
The church HATES women. With a white hot passion.
If they could invent a story where Jesus was born without Mary’s assistance, they would do so in a heartbeat.”
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The Catholic church does hate women and seems to both fear and hate Catholic nuns.
The Independent says “many of [bishops] felt it was disloyal of the sisters to send reports.
Again, the same disgusting excuses,
Father Giulio Albanese says, “Missionaries are human beings, who are often living under immense psychological pressure in situations of war and ongoing violence.”
the article is from 2001
Yes, I know, the date is right there on the page — and how little it is mentioned in all the bruhaha about child sexual abuse. Since it was little reported then, do you really think things have improved?
Women are supposed to die, even if they can be saved. Children of 9 are supposed to bear twins, and the girl’s mother, and the doctor staff who aborted her are excommunicated, women are handcuffed to beds and their bodies are crime scenes because in desperation they sought illegal abortions.
What difference does it make what year it comes from? This is still the same church, up to the very same tricks, calling on Canadians in an election to be held on May 2 this year (2011) that they should not vote for people who will not oppose abortion and assisted dying. That the report comes from 2001 does not change the fact that this church, which presumes to lecture the world on morality, is a cesspit of violence and filth, the abuse of children and women, and the victimisation of the dying. It deserves and receives my contempt.
pittigemaki
I had the feeling that had I read this article before; I focused on the day and month of the article but now note the year. However, regardless of how old the article, the abuse and wanton misbehaviour of the Catholic Church continues.
See http://www.sexualabuseclaimsblog.com/ for a partial list.
One peripheral issue that ticks me off me about this (I mean, other than the enormity of the thing itself) is having to admit that Jack Chick was right after all.
“The Catholic Church in Rome made the extraordinary admission yesterday that it is aware priests from at least 23 countries have been sexually abusing nuns.”
The Vatican is notorious for sending priests with ‘failings’ to third world countries. Bishop Eamonn Casey, who was involved with a woman in Ireland and fathered a child was shifted out to Bolivia.
“I did not ask to come to Bolivia — I was sent to Bolivia,” he said. “I feel that everything I have done is because the Lord has wanted it.” To hell or the third world was the motto of the Vatican.
The nuns who gave up their lives for the service of their god never asked to be forcefully of the service of priests.
Thanks for highlighting the issue, Eric.
Re: Vatican Rapes, I read an article by Richard S. Ehrlich where he stated that a lot of the priests had been to Rome to study, and when they came back, the nuns thought they knew everything, so whatever the priests told them they believed. “They believed them when they said it was OK to have sex. They thought it was normal. “It is safer for an African woman to be out in the world” than to be in a nunnery among lecherous priests,” one nun claimed.
To think that the very same priests who had gone to the Vatican for further studying and who probably kissed the ring of the pontiff whilst there, were returning to Africa and sexually abusing religious nuns, who didn’t know the difference or who were so afraid, that they did not know where to turn.
When John Paull 11 went to Ireland in the early eighties, the very priests who preached the consequences of adultery; who preached moral ethics and all things associated with Roman Catholic teaching; and of whom were to the forefront on the pope’s itinerary; and who were seen by the world, gallivanting around with his holy eminence and holding his vestments… were in fact, the very same priests who behind closed doors were living with women with whom they’d fathered children and were found wanting in the using of laity funding to keep said vulnerable women.
The hypocrisy was on a par with the nuns in Africa. Although, the nuns in Africa were more poverty-stricken and not pampered.
In 2001, out of an estimated global population of one billion Catholics, about 12 percent — 116.6 million — reportedly live in Africa, including 560 bishops and archbishops, 26,000 priests and 51,300 nuns.
See: Vatican Rapes document > http://tinyurl.com/6zmut9a <
Re: Vatican Rapes, I read an article by Richard S. Ehrlich where he stated that a lot of the priests had been to Rome to study, and when they came back, the nuns thought they knew everything, so whatever the priests told them they believed. “They believed them when they said it was OK to have sex. They thought it was normal. “It is safer for an African woman to be out in the world” than to be in a nunnery among lecherous priests,” one nun claimed.
To think that the very same priests who had gone to the Vatican for further studying and who probably kissed the ring of the pontiff whilst there, were returning to Africa and sexually abusing religious nuns, who didn’t know the difference or who were so afraid, that they did not know where to turn.
When John Paull 11 went to Ireland in the early eighties, the very priests who preached the consequences of adultery; who preached moral ethics and all things associated with Roman Catholic teaching; and of whom were to the forefront on the pope’s itinerary; and who were seen by the world, gallivanting around with his holy eminence and holding his vestments… were in fact, the very same priests who behind closed doors were living with women with whom they’d fathered children and were found wanting in the using of laity funding to keep said vulnerable women.
The hypocrisy was on a par with the nuns in Africa. Although, the nuns in Africa were more poverty-stricken and not pampered.
In 2001, out of an estimated global population of one billion Catholics, about 12 percent — 116.6 million — reportedly live in Africa, including 560 bishops and archbishops, 26,000 priests and 51,300 nuns.
I never cease to be amazed, Marie-Thérèse, at the repeated moral failure of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s simply astounding that an organisation that sets itself up as a moral exemplar fails as often as Rome does. I simply get livid now when the church presumes to dictate morality for others. It has no such right in the first place, but having failed so much and so often, it should simply stop pretending that it has any contribution to make to human goodness. It simply doesn’t. It’s a bankrupt institution. And so, to my mind, are all religions, for they not only fail to live up to their promises; their whole existence is based on sand.
I would say it makes a difference that the church has known about this disgrace for so long and as far as anyone knows done exactly nothing about it. Or if they’ve dealt with some of those cases, they certainly haven’t tackled the underlying problem, which is their own fundamental lack of respect for people, especially women.
It shows us that once again, the church puts its own reputation above the wellbeing of actual human beings and covers up abuse for as long as it can.
It also shows us that the media don’t seem very interested in stories of abuse against women.