PITTSBURGH (PA)
Legal Examiner
January 30, 2019
By Eric T. Chaffin
Amidst all the reports of abuse by Catholic priests that have been circulating in the media over the past several months comes a new report alleging that priests weren’t the only ones engaging in sexual abuse. According to CBS News, several nuns have also been accused of sexual molestation and harassment, with victims now coming out to share their stories.
Former Nun Leads the Charge to Expose Abusive Nuns in the Church
Mary Dispenza, a former nun in the Catholic Church, is now working with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) to expose the truth about child sex crimes and cover ups by nuns in the church.
Back in 2012, she sent a letter to the bishops asking them to expand their oversight of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) “into what the organization—and America’s religious orders of women—are doing and are not doing regarding child sex crimes and cover ups by nuns.”
She went on to write that many abusive nuns have never been exposed or disciplined and that many who were abused by nuns have coped by denying and mischaracterizing the crimes they suffered, leading to increased confusion, isolation, shame, and self-blame. She adds that there are more nuns than priests and that many more nuns had access to more kids, mostly because they worked in schools.
Finally, she urged the bishops to help in making the church “and our society safer from clergy child predators….”
It was after the Pennsylvania grand jury released their report of hundreds of pedophile priests back in August 2018 that Dispenza noticed an uptick in reports of abuse by religious sisters.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.