Sexual abuse among religious sisters is still a neglected aspect of the ongoing abuse crisis. Shortly before the Spotlight revelations, scholars found that many nuns had suffered abuse at the hands of priests and their own superiors. Previous studies (1, 2, 3) by two religious sisters had revealed that abuse was a particular problem in Africa and other scenes of evangelization.

Mary Dispenza, who was abused by a priest as a child in Los Angeles, was abused again as a postulant by her religious superior.

The abuse of religious sisters by their senior colleagues is a kind of spiritual and vocational abuse that is also found in high schools,…