Former nun allegedly abused by CDF official denounces spiritual abuse

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
LaCroix International
February 18, 2019

https://bit.ly/2ttnzqa

Doris Wagner Photo by Andrea Schombara

Doris Wagner, a former German nun who reported a former official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) for making unwanted sexual advances towards her, has published a new book chronicling "spiritual abuse" in Catholic religious orders.

Wagner, who's denunciations led Father Hermann Geissler to resign his CDF post in January, gives a detailed account of the various forms of sexual and spiritual abuse she experienced during her eight years as a member of the spiritual family "The Work," the same mixed religious community to which Father Geissler belongs.

In her latest book "Spiritueller Mißbrauch in der katholische Kirche" (Spiritual Abuse in the Catholic Church) she goes into the different facets of the phenomenon of spiritual abuse.

In a recent interview for katholisch.de, the official website of the German Catholic Church, she related how manipulation and control can rob victims of their spiritual autonomy.

Asked to explain what she meant by the term "spiritual abuse," Wagner pointed out that abuse is always a boundary violation. She said that, like sexual abuse, spiritual abuse is a violation of spiritual autonomy in the fields of belief and spirituality, just as sexual abuse was a violation of sexual autonomy.

Wagner, who is now married, differentiated various forms of spiritual abuse. She said they include neglect, manipulation and violence, adding that they are built on one another because perpetrators progress systematically.

The former woman religious said those who have never experienced abuse cannot appreciate how someone could allow oneself to be spiritually abused.

But she insisted that such gross encroachments have destroyed relationships and have even included sexual abuse in a spiritual context. They are often preceded by manipulation and spiritual neglect.

"A nun can be manipulated in such a way that she obeys her superior's (abusive) instructions, because she has never been able to develop a proper concept of obedience and thus wrongly supposes that the boundary violation comes under the vow of obedience," Wagner said.

"Spiritual neglect alone can have just as serious consequences as spiritual violence if a person does not have a sustaining image of God to help them cope with life – and that can lead one to despair," she said.

Wagner argued that every sacrament, every ritual and every pastoral act was prone to spiritual abuse. Whether abuse actually takes place always depends on the priest's outlook, she said.

"If the confessor is convinced that he is a mediator who imparts or refuses grace, then that is problematic," she said.

"If, on the other hand, he sees himself as someone who consoles and assures the penitent that he or she can find forgiveness, and who, moreover, does not place a high value on or overvalue his own role, then confession can be a good thing," she said.

Wagner said the issue of whether confession remains voluntary or is compulsory -- as it still was before receiving first communion or confirmation -- is also a factor.

She said Church authorities must definitely intervene in spiritual abuse when canonical norms are violated, such as the violation of the seal of the confession, or when information given in confidence is passed on. She said the local bishop or the Vatican should then investigate and impose penal sanctions.

Wagner said she had experienced many such violations, but, "sadly," the sanctions were never imposed. "I find that surprising, since that is surely the first and simplest thing than can and must be done," she said.

She said the Church must listen to those affected, look into their cases and reflect on how spiritual abuse can be prevented.

In her book she goes into the contradictions between church law and official church teaching.

"There are two aspects of this logic that we find interlocked everywhere in the Church, and the problem is that they exclude one another," Wagner told katholisch.de.

On the one hand, the Church tries to strengthen the individual conscience. But on the other it demands obedience. She argued that the two are not compatible.

She said the whole of church law is pervaded by a division between clerics and the laity, and this fosters an authoritarian logic which demands submission.

Wagner said this logic makes the Church a "hermaphroditic entity." On the one hand it beats people; but on the other it smiles upon them.

Those who submit are considered naive since the Church urges its members to be responsible.

And if, as a result of submission and spiritual abuse, a person is damaged in the process, no one in the Church takes responsibility. On the other hand, those who rely on their own conscience and act accordingly are sanctioned or refused the sacraments.

Wagner said it is imperative and urgent that the Church distance itself from the logic of submission (Unterordnungslogik) where that still exists. She said submission must not be whitewashed as something that some people need or something that is part of the Church's tradition.

"The Church must (publicly) declare that those who feel bound to categorically tell others what God wants are dangerous. Such people cause great harm and should not take on pastoral work in the Church," Wagner said.