UNMASKING INTEGRITY

THE CHALLENGE BEFORE CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE

Authors

  • Kochurani Abraham Indian Women Theologian’s Forum, Kerala

Keywords:

Abuse on Nuns, Clergy, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Gender, Indian Church, Patriarchy, Revisiting Theology, Sexual Abuse, Theology of Priesthood, Vulnerability

Abstract

Clergy sexual abuse and the inappropriate ways of handling the crisis have led the Church to grave crisis of credibility and integrity. The situation is like a sickness that afflicts the health and wellbeing of the body that we call the Church. This pathological condition poses a challenge to the ecclesiastical system, to unmask itself in a manner that will help diagnose the deeper roots this disease and, in the process uncover the integrity of ecclesiastical life and mission. In this paper the issue is addressed taking the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy. The basic problematic underlying this issue is identified as the unresolved gender question and the consequent power equations that exist between clergy and nuns within the gendered hierarchical structure of the ecclesiastical setting.

The privileged positions that priests and bishops enjoy as the ‘head’ with spiritual leadership and decision-making powers and the gendered spaces that nuns occupy and the roles they play in the Church make them highly susceptible to abuse. This crisis calls for a critical revisiting of ecclesial life in its theology, structural settings, and practices so that in the process of unmasking, the Church could recapture its relevance in keeping with the Christian vision and praxis.

Author Biography

Kochurani Abraham, Indian Women Theologian’s Forum, Kerala

Kochurani Abraham is a feminist theologian, researcher, writer and trainer on issues related to gender, sexuality, spirituality and ecology. She has a Licentiate in Systematic Theology from the University of Comillas, Madrid, and a PhD in Christian Studies from the University of Madras, India with a special focus on feminist theology. She teaches feminist theology and feminist spirituality in some institutes of formation. She is the former Convener of the Indian Christian Women’s Movement (ICWM) and the present Vice President of the Indian Theological Association (ITA). She is active in the Indian Women Theologians’ Forum (IWTF) and the World Forum of Theology and Liberation (WFTL). Her book Persisting Patriarchy: Intersectionalities, Negotiations, Subversions published by Palgrave Macmillan (2019) deals with the interplay of gender and religion.

References

Angela Giuffrida, “The Vatican Editor who Exposed the Sexual Abuse of Nuns- and Took on the Pope,” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/ 08/vatican-editor-sexual-abuse-lucetta-scaraffia-nuns-misogyny, accessed on 12 May 2020.

Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, “Gender sensitivity and the Catholic Clergy,” JIVAN, May-June, 2019, 6-8, at 7.

Boff, Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church, Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1986.

C. Rene Padilla, “A New Ecclesiology in Latin America, International Bulletin of Missionary Research,” 11, 4 (1987) 156-164.

Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System,” in Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books Inc., 1973.

James Carroll, “Abolish the Priesthood,” The Atlantic, June 2019.

Jerome F. Thompson, “In Persona Christi”: Its Significance for the Theology of Ministerial Priesthood in the Documents of Vatican II, An Unpublished Thesis, Marquette University, Wisconsin, 1987.

John L. Allen Jr. and Pamela Schaeffer, “Reports of abuse: AIDS exacerbates sexual exploitation of nuns,” https://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2001a/031601/031601a.htm accessed on 10 May 2020.

Kamla Bhasin, Understanding Gender, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2005.

Karl Rahner et al., ed., Sacramentum Mundi, vol. 5, New York: Herder & Herder, 1970, S.v. “Priest.”

Kochurani Abraham, Persisting Patriarchy: Intersectionalities, Negotiations, Subversions, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

M.G. Radhakrishnan, “Rising Cases of Sexual Abuse within the Church in Kerala Force Clergy to Rethink on Homosexuality,” India Today, 17 September 2011; See also “Priestly Predators,” The Outlook, 20 January, 2017.

Metti Amirtham, SCC, “The ‘Silenced Half’ in the Church Dares to Speak,” The New Leader, March 1-15, 2015, 10-13.

Nicole Winfield, “Vatican Magazine Denounces Nun’s Servitude,” https:// apnews.com/b224527fd8de462c81eee69ca8d11bbb, accessed on 10 May 2020.

Pius XI, Ad Catholici Sacerdotti

Rabia Gregory, Marrying Jesus: Brides and the Bridegroom in Medieval Women’s Religious Literature, an Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, 2007.

Rosamma John, “Hierarchical Structures and Gender Relations: A Psychological Appraisal,” in ed. Astrid Lobo Gajiwala et al., Gender Relations in the Church: A Call to Wholeness and Equal Discipleship, New Delhi: Media House, 2012, 149-158.

Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Women-Church: Emerging Feminist Liturgical Communities,” in Norbert Greinacher and Norbert Mette, ed. Popular Religion, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1986.

Shilpa Ranade “The Way She Moves: Mapping the Everyday Production of Gender-space,” Economic and Political Weekly, April 28 , 2007, 1519-26.

Subhash Anand, “The Rape of Nuns,” Sathyadeepam (Eng. ed.), 16-30 April, 2015, 2.

Thomas Doyle, “Clericalism: Enabler of Clergy Sexual Abuse,” in Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea and Virginia Goldner, ed., Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims, The Sexual Abuse Crisis and The Catholic Church, The Analytic Press Mahwah, New Jersey London, 2007, 147-162.

Thomas Doyle, “The Sexual Abuse Crisis is Not a Crisis,” https://consciencemag.org/2019/04/03/the-sexual-abuse-crisis-is-not-a-crisis/ fbclid=IwAR0t3u2woDiyfCLtWRWftWoZobymJF

Vatican II, Lumen Gentium.

Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis.

Downloads

Published

2020-06-30

How to Cite

Abraham, K. (2020). UNMASKING INTEGRITY: THE CHALLENGE BEFORE CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE. Asian Horizons, 14(2), 393–406. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/view/2908