| 'Hypocrisy in the Church: Only Men Molest?' | Login/Create an Account | 28 comments |
Search Discussion
|
|
|
|
The Fine Print:
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
Mensactivism.org is not responsible for them in any way.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
username: mann
password: misandry
anywho, here's a mirror of the text
Nuns shake heads too, but faith remains firm
By Barbara Brotman
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 10, 2002
This past Holy Thursday, Sister Joan O'Shea congratulated a priest she knew on his ordination, as is traditional on a day considered the anniversary of the priesthood.
"His whole face clouded over," said O'Shea, a Dominican nun. "It is clear that the whole idea of the priesthood has been clouded by the scandal."
It is not the nuns' scandal. The controversy rocking the Roman Catholic church has involved men, from the priests who have been accused or convicted of pedophilia to the church officials charged with responding to allegations of abuse.
But it is happening in the nuns' church. And for women who have devoted their lives to their religion, it is a profound crisis.
"It's very sad; it's almost beyond belief," said O'Shea, 71, promoter of mission effectiveness at Dominican University in River Forest.
"Of all the subjects we have taken on, this one has been the most difficult for me to write about," said Sister Ruth Ann Boyle, 45, a cloistered Carmelite nun in an Indianapolis monastery that runs an extraordinary Web site, praythenews.com, on which the nuns write weekly commentaries on current events.
She considered taking the week off from writing. But she went ahead, as did all five other contributors, and the nuns kept their comments about the scandal posted on the site an additional week.
"It's hard. It's like the difference between when you have something happening in your own family, and to a stranger," she said.
And among nuns in that family, there is everything from confusion to fury to grief.
"I felt a great sadness," said Sister Terese Boersig, 69, another praythenews.com contributor from the Indianapolis Carmelites. "We look to our priests as leaders. For any priest to succumb to weakness--it's a betrayal."
"We don't want the faith of the people weakened because of the weakness of the leaders," said Sister Kathleen Smith, pastoral minister and director of religious education of St. Felicitas Church in Chicago's Avalon neighborhood on the South Side.
"And I'm feeling, also, very sad for the victims. They need sustained help to recover from all that has happened to them."
The fury is over the church's handling of the crisis, including the notorious instance in Boston of a pedophile priest being shuttled to different parishes instead of being reported to civil authorities.
`A coverup'
"I'm old enough to know that pedophilia exists across every walk of life," Boersig said. But the way the church responded, she said, "was a coverup. If it's a crime, if it's a felony, I don't think we can protect you. Whoever you are, you have to face that."
Boyle said, "It really flabbergasted me that the church, which is supposed to be proclaiming the good news of God's life, just seemed to be turning its back on people who really needed support."
To many in the church laity--which means anyone not ordained as a priest, including nuns--the scandal has laid bare the church hierarchy's governing style.
"I have felt the leadership of the church has been much too closed and unresponsive," O'Shea said. Decisions are made, she said, in an "autocratic, non-consultative style."
"The cost of it, for the silence, is taking away from the rest of the people," Smith said. "People have put money into the church, and then it's being used for this. We're all victimized by it."
But the scandal will change the way the church operates, predicted Sister Rachel Salute, 76, one of the Indianapolis Carmelite nuns.
"I think it's a wakeup call," she said. "It's going to shake everything up. . . . Priests are going to be taken off their pedestal, which will be good for them, and the laity will have more of a role in the church. And I think it Read the rest of this comment...
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's not the exact same, the columnist talks to be an actual nun maybe once, but the entire purpose is to show that nuns = good, women. priests = bad, male. Because, you see, it's the patriarchial power structure of the Catholic church that makes it so that nuns could not stop the abuse. So therefore women should be allowed to become priests in the Catholic church - then the patriarchy would crash down and nobody would ever be molested again.
In closing, it's a bunch of idiocy, since we've seen how crushing the "patriarchy" has led to the eradication of molestation everywhere else - riiight.
Am I the only one who thinks it's silly to demand a religion have an equal power structure? These nuns CHOSE a life where they are not going be in power - big deal. If they wanted to believe in the Virgin Mary et all, but want to be in power, BRANCH OFF. Start your own church.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have a differnt take on the matter. I think what the point that is being made is not that men are bad but that an elitist hierachy itself (no matter who it is comprised of) is a framework for corruption and abuse. A more open democratic, inclusive collaborative process, which includes more people, is less susceptible to such corruption and self-serving tactics such as a "cover-up" implies.
Another point is that IF a group takes for itself ALL the authority and leadership positions, then they must also take upon themselves ALL the responsibility and/or blame when things go wrong and they fail to fix them. That is what leadership is about ... the buck stops here sort of thing.
In the the Catholic Church, which explicitly excludes women from its upper heirarchy and leadership positons, the blame then for mistakes and failure to correct them must also go to the leaders, who incidently are all male ... by decree. You can't have it both ways.
This is the nature of leadership, not men per se. Leadership requires a higher degree of accountability. If you can't or won't be responsible for what happens on your watch, you should be one of the sheep, not a shepherd.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/031601/ 031601a.htm
Once again, where is the Catholic leadership on these issues. This is a disturbing report of sexual exploitation seemingly endemic in African clergy. Once again, IMO, the elitist heirarchal framework of the church is the real villian here, causing this kind of abuse (and that reported in the USA) to be covered up and allowed to continue unabated. Of course, when people try to uncover the corruption and abuse they are immediately labeled "Catholic bashers" and "male bashers". But how are we to stop this behaviour if we don't confront it head on?
I do believe we need balance. There ARE plenty of good, decent priests and clergy. More good than bad. But why the reluctance to police themselves and clean their own house? This seems to me to be the bigger picture question in these discussions? Who or what are they protecting by remaining silent?
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
by Anonymous User on Saturday April 13, @11:46AM EST (#21)
|
|
|
|
|
The Catholic religion is quickly becoming the Child Molestation relgion in a physical sense, matching it's molestation of children's minds. Perhaps some of the blind sheep in the flock will question their insane reiligious mythology.
Catholics--you have been attending, supporting, and defending the Church of the Holy Child Molester !!!
I hope that that fact has led some of you to question your religious faith, abandon your dogma, and consider the alternatives of atheism and reason.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Please note the misandrist comment from one of the nuns: "men are men."
I wonder what the nun's response to that would be, If is was directed at the same correlation between abuse and molestation.
The oppurtunity to cease power with the use of sex as a weapon is really quite amazing, its like they are all working together and decided that every chance we get to point the finger will be to our benifit. And now even the nuns are in on the gender wars. It is no longer about molestation on little boys, feminists have claimed that as their victimhood too. "If women in charge, this would never happen." I wonder if they will ever meet my grade 10 teacher (name with held) who taught me what sex was like with an older woman. Not only have feminists stolen feminism they have stolen the suffering of a little boy.
Dan Lynch, a lover of women.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Though the main thrust of this article is the relationship between child abuse and crimes later committed by the abused, the article does address somewhat the brutalization of children by nuns. Someday maybe the US will end its great coverup.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ Reply to This
| Parent
]
|
|
| |
1 reply
beneath your current threshold.
|
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
