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Abused nuns:
Reaction End silence, then take action
By MARGARET A. FARLEY
This is a difficult story to publish and to read. There will be
objections to it from all sides. Cultural differences, scandal for the whole
church, the unknown full magnitude of the problem, dangers of racist
Africa-bashing -- these and many other concerns will be expressed.
They are legitimate concerns. But they do not override, in this
case, the need to take action. Public knowledge may help to make direct and
aggressive action more likely. It is, in my view, worth the risks it
entails.
Why action? Because in the face of sexual abuse of any kind, the
perpetrators must be stopped. Future perpetrators, moreover, must be put on
stark notice that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. The safety of
potential victims must be secured; the care of present victims must be attended
to; the pastoral mission of the church must not be compromised further than it
has already been by the contradictions between its words and what it allows in
the behavior of its clergy.
This is hardly a puritanical response to the problem. It does not
deny the importance of cultural difference. It does not offer simply another
judgmental word like abstinence for all people at risk of HIV infections, or
chastity in contexts where the meaning of this is ambiguous, or silence in the
face of terrible suffering marked by unearned shame. It is true that cultures
differ vastly, perhaps especially on issues of sexuality. But no culture, and
certainly no religious tradition, ought any longer either to bless or ignore
sex that is coercive, exploitive, manipulative and destructive to unwilling
victims. And no culture or religion should foster the degradation and
subservience of some for the sake of the gratification of others. Whatever our
diversity, one from another, we all know what it is to be protected or
violated, respected or shamed, cared for or tragically injured.
The problems here run deep. They are not primarily problems of the
meaning or appropriateness of celibacy in some cultures. They are not limited
to accommodations of a universal church in the face of local and regional
diversity. They include not only sexual harassment and abuse, but disrespect
for women, a fatally flawed clerical culture, inadequate and empty sexual
ethics and misplaced shame that literally allows individuals and whole peoples
to die.
Traditional solutions will not work, whether they are cloistering
women as the preferred means to control the power of men, hiding the failures
of church leaders, accepting sexual coercion as a means to whatever other goal,
or doing all but what is really necessary to stop the spread of plagues. We
need to consider larger issues of injustices to women and their children,
clerical or military strategies of sexual abuse, and a misguided ban on condom
use for the prevention of AIDS. But within the context of such issues, there
can be no doubt that in the cases described in this article individuals are
being unjustly harmed, whole societies are being ill-served, and the church is
being seriously damaged in its life and its mission. At least the silence must
end. Perhaps then some no-nonsense action can be taken.
Mercy Sr. Margaret A. Farley is professor of Christian ethics
at Yale University Divinity School.
National Catholic Reporter, April 6,
2001
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