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RAPE AND RELIGION Rape
of the Soul. By
Krystyna Smith. (
word count, including this title: 1251) In the storm unleashed on the Church by the
very serious accusations of priests perpetrating appalling abuses on
women, many voices can be heard. The voice of the Vatican comes across
loudly, acknowledging such abuses and promising to do something about
them. The voices of religious men and women are heard, duly shocked but
very quick to point out, and no doubt very rightly, that the majority of
clergy and religious are faithful, often to the point of heroism. The
voices of appalled Catholics in general are also heard, for example, in
the editorial of the Southern Cross,(April 8th ) But perhaps the most important voices of all are either silent or are drowned out. These are the voices of the victims of the abuse – those of the raped and abused women, who are as much, part of the equation as the recalcitrant clergy in question. That the Catholic hierarchy, clergy and
religious choose to focus public attention on the promised corrective
steps to be taken by Church authorities, as well as on the goodness and
faithfulness of the majority of clergy and religious, obscures a myriad of
very perturbing issues. The
editor of the Southern Cross expressed his concern about the harm done to
the Church by the appalling abuse of those nuns, and to young women who
may now turn away from a vocation to the religious life (Editorial, April
8th). That he did not even mention the almost unimaginable harm
already done to the victim reflects a bias that can be considered as an
alarming indictment on the institutional Church. What happens to a woman when a priest rapes
or otherwise abuses her sexually?
It is more – far more -
than a sexual violation. It is far more than an emotional violation. It
becomes a profound spiritual violation. This
spiritual aspect is usually missing from crimes of the same nature
committed by any other sector of people abusing positions of trust. Catholics are traditionally educated to
have a huge respect for and trust in the clergy. It is to priests that they entrust their
deepest and often darkest secrets. It is to the clergy that they turn for
spiritual guidance, believing there is sanctity conferred by ordination, a
belief firmly upheld by the clergy themselves. When
men professing to be special representatives of God abuse this trust, it
is a rape of the soul. For the victim it is as though God himself has
abused that person. There is
no conceivable abuse more terrible that this. No trauma counselling, any
psychotherapy can ever wipe away the harm that is done. Not even the
Vatican, however well- intentioned, can ‘solve ‘ these ‘individual
cases’, as is suggested in the front page leading article (April 8th)
Psychotherapists recognize that when sexual
abuse by a minister of religion has taken place, the victim ideally needs
spiritual help through the spiritual counselling of another, skilled and
sensitive minister of religion. Yet they are usually very reluctant even
to suggest this to their clients, as the situation is often made worse:
the tendency of ministers of religion is to close ranks, and protect the
reputation of their own kind. This need not be due to corrupt intentions,
but can be a result of conditioning or ignorance. How many times has a victim of rape or
sexual abuse by clergy tried to tell a third person, a priest or a sister,
of what has happened, only to be met with one or more of several
attitudes: that she must have somehow ‘led’ the priest on, by her
behaviour , dress or whatever? How many times is the myth perpetuated that
men are not responsible for their behaviour once sexually aroused? How
many times is it suggested, of not stated, that the victim is lying, or
exaggerating? That surely she must have ‘seen it coming’ and therefore that it happened must to
some degree have involved her consent? It
is forgotten that these situations arise within a power relationship, the
priest exerting power on various levels – spiritual power by virtue of
the high regard in which his profession is held; emotional power, as the
victim has often gone to him top seek help with a problem, and therefore
in an emotionally vulnerable state, and of course, physical power by
virtue of his superior physical strength. There
is also the social power that a man has over a woman – in just about
every society on earth. There is no excuse, none at all, for such a crime by a priest.
Now, of course, in the face of very public international accusations, the
hierarchy is stressing the total unacceptability of such behaviour. Yet
victims too often see a very different attitude shown by the institutional
Church. Even if the guilt of the priest is
acknowledged, how often do clergy and religious then express pious
Christian sentiments of sympathy or excuses for the priest, in her
hearing, without a word of sympathy, let alone of empathy for the torment
she is going through? Humiliation
is piled onto humiliation, and often the treatment victims meet when they
seek justice for what has been done to them is even more unbearable than
the initial violation. Priests
who violate the trust put in them are not ‘only human’; they are not
only ‘sinners like the rest
of us’. They are criminals, they are social menaces, and Christian
‘mercy’ must come only after justice has been done and been publicly
seen to be done. But justice is not easily come by for a
victim. It takes an almost
unbelievable amount of courage to tell anyone in the first place, as any
rape or sexual abuse victim knows. Crimes of a sexual nature are notoriously difficult to report,
due to the need for the most intimate of personal details to be described
and defended. A woman who has been raped or abused is also up against the
still pervasive view of society, of Woman as the Temptress. Above all,
when stating her case, it is the priest’s word against hers – and in
view of the power and respect a priest automatically has, it is hardly
suprising if her self-preservation instinct leads her to keep quiet. The
courage to speak out let alone to fight for justice is even harder to find
when she has already been severely traumatised Where does this extremely dangerous notion
come from that rape happens because the priest needs sex, ergo, priests
should marry? Rape is a crime
of violence, and has nothing whatsover to do with the testosterone levels
of a man, while to blame rape and sexual abuse on cultural mores is to
demean the values of that society and to insult its people. People know that the majority of priests and religious do not go around raping and abusing women. They are not a spineless mass, and if their faith is going to crumble because of scandals they witness, then it cannot be said to be faith in the first place. It is high time the Church stops hiding behind the self-righteous line of defense it has adopted at present, and publically faces up to the real issues at stake. It is high time that the rights of the victim are given a higher profile, that finding effective ways to help her are given priority and that the criminal behaviour of priests is handled not behind closed doors, but in a manner where indeed, justice can be seen to be done. © Speak Out Terms of use |