letter to women religious leaders

petition

letter to women religious leaders

August 16, 2004

Sister Constance Phelps, SCL, Board President
Sister Carol Shinnick, SSND, Executive Director
Regional Chairs
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
8808 Cameron Street
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4113
E-mail: director@lcwr.org
Fax: 301-587-4575

Sister Mary McGreevy, RSM, Chairperson
Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious
Post Office Box 4467
Washington, DC 20017-0467
E-mail: cmswr@ix.netcom.com
Fax: 202-832-6325

Initial copies sent by e-mail and fax on August 16, 2004. Originals will be mailed separately.

Dear Sisters:

Abuse by Nuns is a newly established organization founded by a network of survivors of sexual abuse by women religious. Our goal is simply to promote healing-for victims, offenders, and communities of women religious. As a group, we have no affiliation with any other organization. We are writing to you now with an invitation to join with us in our efforts. We recognize that these are volatile times for both abuse victims and congregational leaders as they struggle to find a common language and create an atmosphere of reconciliation. We believe we can help to bridge the gap, with your support.

Almost all of the victims that have contacted us wish to be heard without going through a legal process. Often, they fear further exploitation by civil attorneys. What seems to be most empowering in the direction of healing is simple validation and support from a caring authority figure.

Since 2002, the majority of victims coming forward only recently developed the courage to break their silence because of alliances they made with other victims. Because of this strong alliance, it must be understood that these victims are best served, initially, as a group. We know of many victims who are still reluctant to identify themselves individually because there has been little public affirmation of safety or compassion from women religious leaders depicted in the press. While it may seem more personal and pastorally effective to hear and respond to the stories of abuse victims on an individual need basis, this approach is not adequate to meet the initial safety needs of most victims.

We also recognize that the organizational structure for congregations of women religious within the broader church hierarchy is not conducive to action on a national basis. We realize that LCWR and CMSWR hold no authority over congregational superiors, and that each congregation has its own constitution, approved individually by the Vatican. Regionally, however, the ministerial roles of most sisters who work with vulnerable populations fall within the jurisdiction of the bishop under whom they minister. Yet it is the congregational leadership that holds direct authority over their community members. It is easy to understand how victims may get frustrated and overwhelmed by this complex matrix of leadership. To use the metaphor of the church as family: victims, as hurt children, feel like neither parent is readily available to offer comfort. While it may not be within the power of LCWR and CMSWR to change this situation, you are the only unified representations of parental figures that victims can identify. Therefore, on a national level, you hold the greatest power to offer an initial healing response to victims as a group.

It is difficult at this time to estimate the number of incidences of abuse by women religious or the number of people affected by it. Collectively, members of Abuse by Nuns have had contact with at least 40 victims in the United States,  Canada,  the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. This number, though small, must be weighed against the figure of 0.7% of women religious who admitted to sexual contact with minors while in psychiatric treatment between 1993 and 2002 (from the Markham study quoted by Shinnick in NCR, 11/1/2002). If this figure is representative of the total number of offenders--those who would admit to abuse along with those who would deny it--and if there were at least 200,000 vowed women working around the world during that same time period, then we can estimate that there are at least 1400 victims who were abused as minors by women religious in ministry during those nine years. If we consider abuse perpetrated by women religious who either left their communities or died before 1993, and if we consider that each perpetrator may have had multiple victims, then it is possible that the number of childhood victims who may still be living is in the tens of thousands.

This figure does not include adult victims of sexual exploitation by women religious, nor does it include childhood victims of physical abuse or other forms of maltreatment. For those of us who recognize the potential enormity of this issue, it is disheartening to see that abuse committed by your own member populations has been excluded from the list of global violence issues to be discussed at the upcoming LCWR assembly. Likewise, it is most disturbing that CMSWR has yet to make even a public statement about abuse by women religious.

We know that our attempts to quantify this problem are educated guesses, at best. But with no system in place to collect valid and reliable data, guessing is the best we can do. We urge LCWR and CMSWR to collaborate and consider ways to pool information from congregational leaders regarding abuse claims so that a more accurate picture of sexual abuse perpetrated by women religious may be understood. It is only through exploring truth that we can understand its implications and take responsible action. Though we may be dealing primarily with claims from the distant past, it is the current leadership that now holds the power to heal the wounds that have festered for decades.

Below are some recommendations that we believe would contribute to the healing process as well as to a more thorough response to this issue:

• Create the opportunity on a national level for victims of abuse to express themselves directly to members of LCWR/CMSWR and to receive a compassionate response. If you were to actually reach out and solicit victim groups to send representatives to a national forum, then there would be no mistaking your sincerity in addressing this issue. That alone, would help others to feel validated, which is often the only thing that victims desire.

• Offer educational programs on a national, regional and congregational level which include not only legal issues but psychological and spiritual issues that must be addressed by congregational leaders to provide a healing experience for all involved in allegations of abuse/exploitation. We firmly believe that meaningful programs must be tailored to specifically address the issues of abuse/exploitation of both male and female children and vulnerable adults by female, religious authority figures. Research on female perpetrators and their victims suggests that they experience unique issues that must be understood to properly address their needs.

• Encourage congregational leaders to host and participate in healing events designed to promote dialogue and reconciliation between victims, members of the religious community, and whenever possible, their offenders.

• Create a national, centralized process for gathering information on reports of abuse/exploitation by women religious so that reliable and valid statistics may be compiled. Without a cooperative project of this sort, we have no solid data on which to base need assessments for abuse prevention efforts.

• Establish a national task group to serve as a central resource for information gathering, consultation, accountability and support to congregations dealing with abuse claims. This task group should be composed of religious and non-religious leaders with experience as congregational superiors, legal professionals in both canon and civil law, mental health experts in the field of sexual abuse research and treatment, and survivors of sexual and physical abuse by women religious offenders.

petition

We join our names and voices in calling for the acknowledgment and recognition of sexual abuse perpetrated by women religious. We call on churches with associated communities of women religious and nuns to publicly recognize sexual abuse by its women members as a crime and a sin.

We call on the Vatican to give credence to our mission and to acknowledge that sexual abuse by nuns and sisters is a real and international problem that has devastated children and community members worldwide. We call on groups such as the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the National Religious Retirement Office, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to condemn sexual abuse by women religious and to issue guidelines for reporting issues of sexual abuse. We call on all groups, including individual religious communities, to report all allegations of sexual abuse to the appropriate civil authorities. And we call on Catholic publications to cover this story in an accurate and forthcoming manner.

Together, our voices are being heard. The silence, once so carefully protected behind convent walls, is being shattered.

Please join us by e-mailing your name, initials or pen name and request that it be added to this petition. You may include as much or as little information as you wish. Signing the petition will help to build a database of support and vital information. By providing an e-mail address, victims of abuse by nuns will have the opportunity to network with one another; there is comfort in numbers.

Thank you, and welcome home. Always remember, you are NOT alone. Together, we are making a difference.

Ashley Hill
NH/USA
abused, age 7,1962
NH/Sisters of Mercy
evelina35@hotmail.com

Myra Hidalgo
Louisiana/USA
abused ages 13-15
Sister Cheryl Porte, MSC
Opelousas, LA/Marianites of Holy Cross
myrahidalgoccc@hotmail.com

Rev. Cáit Finnegan
PA/USA
abused, age 15 through age 21,
NY/Sisters of Mercy
cait@ptd.net http://homepage.mac.com/caitfinnegan/SexualAbuseByNuns/Personal8.html

Beth Maureen Gray
USA
abused ages 19-22
California/Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception(2)
Also abused by 3 priests/mother of priest's disabled son
bm_gray@hotmail.com

Tina M. Deraco
PA/USA
abused age 6-7
Sister Dolorata
PA/Sisters of St. Joseph
newhopes11@msn.com

Jill Thornton
NSW Australia
Unprofessional/unethical conduct /sexual misconduct by a PRH Educator/ Sister of Mercy during counselling.
PRH(personality and human relations founded by Andrea Rochais/Catholic Priest).

Age. 40 to 50 years of age.
nunabuse@clergyabuseaustralia.org

Deborah Bridge

NY/USA

Sexaully violated as a novice by another member of the community

School Sisters of St. Francis

Age 25

dbridge1@rochester.rr.com

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