Sacred rapes, when the victims of violence are nuns

«There is a deep cut, a laceration that crosses the church, an open and bleeding wound. It is the wound of the abuses, that perversion that transforms who should be a shepherd into a predator, who should protect in the executioner ». It is the violence that is hidden within the religious environments, those of which we almost never speak, especially if the victims are nuns. To discover a vase that contains a submerged boundless stories, it is the lawyer Laura Sgrò, Expert in Vatican Mysteries, always alongside Pietro Orlandi in the search for truth about what happened to his sister Emanuela. In the Investigation Book Sacred rapesin the bookstore for Rizzoli, Laura Sgrò starts from the testimonies of nuns who with courage, after not having been listened to by anyone for years, decided to raise their voices. And they did by asking listening to her. They are called Gloria, Mirjam, Samuelle but there are many sisters who have denounced priests, sometimes their spiritual fathers and who now ask for justice to be done. For them and all the victims of violence that are affected twice: when they suffer and when they are not believed.

How was this book born?
«It all started when I met Gloria and Mirjam last year first, then
Sister Samuelle and to follow the other former sisters. I had already had contacts with
of the other nuns who had come to see me, they had told me their stories
Dramatic of abuses suffered but then they had not had the courage to report.
This thing had me very regretted me because, for example, Maria, the
First sister I am telling about in my book, I had really struck me a lot ».

What had happened to you?
«Maria was the first and scratched my heart, and scratching is not a term that I have
Used by chance, because he had told me a story of terrible abuse. He had me
confessed to having been raped by a priest and that he was then forced to
abort. I am very sorry not to have had his news more ».

Then what changed?
«Everything changed when I got to know Gloria, Mirjam and Sister
Samuelle. They were a great push for me, because I got to
deepen a very important theme and why their testimonies have me
Given the possibility of entering a world that is still almost unknown now,
that of the religious who suffer abuse. The life of the nuns is unknown in
general. The nuns do not denounce the abuses suffered because in some way it is as if
they did not fall into the genre of women. Nobody really cares about the nuns. AND
as if they belonged to a particular category, which does not fall within that of
women”.

In a sense it is as if they were desessualized.
“Yes. When we talk about abuse of women, we don’t consider the nuns. In the
Our way of thinking, women are one thing, the nuns another. The religious,
Instead, they are women like the others and, among women, they are the ones who have the most
Need to be protected because their voices are faint, almost non -existent ».

Those who turned to her, what have been pushed from?
«They made a small path alone, first with personal complaints. Yes they are
he realized that they didn’t listen much. They were intent on going forward and
So they came to me looking for help and protection. But what I noticed is that the
First of all they wanted it was the recognition of the truth. They wanted before
Everything be believed, which is a step before the will of justice ».

What are the main fears of a nun who decides to report?
«If a woman has a thousand fears before reporting, it is even worse for a nun
Because the religious vote for obedience. If a woman suffers an abuse, the choice
To report their abusator is absolutely personal, it concerns the abused and the
own consciousness. For a nun the question is different and much more complex, because
It also involves his relationship with the community to which he made vow of obedience. The
Religious make the vow of obedience, chastity, poverty. They live community life
in a fairly closed way. Their life is the community. I hardly
make such an important decision regardless of the wishes of the community to which
belongs ».

Do we do some examples?
«If a nun needs a doctor and the community has a medical sister, the nun
It has no need to contact outside, he will get cured by his sisted; if
a nun must educate, will attend a university of the religious order to which
it belongs or at least close to the order itself. This means that the religious
They live in a very closed environment. It should be added that religious also vote for
poverty, therefore even if they earn money by working, what they receive it
return to the community itself. And this is good in a system that works and that
protects members of their community, however, not when the system becomes
abusant. Therefore, if a religious decides to report abuse without consent,
or at least the support, of the mother superior, risks being outside the
community itself and without resources to live with. And where is it going? What does it do? From where
Start again? »

What happened to your clients?
«The first two who came to me, Gloria and Mirjam, had been released for years from
community they belonged to and this is a significant fact. I have five clients, of which
four exits from the same community and one who is still a nun – Sister Samuelle – that
however it no longer belongs to a religious community, having chosen to leave it and to
become a hermit nun. I have been to Sister Samuelle’s house, which is a place
Beautiful, but only his. There is no more place, in his life, for a dimension
Community. Sister Samuelle’s house is her refuge. Has maintained faith and dress,
But it no longer tolerates community life ».

What do you remember in particular of the moments she shared with these women?
«There were moments of great emotion. The first was when I have
met Gloria and Mirjam. To assist them, I had placed the one that
they were in my credible eyes. I listened to their story without superstructures – nor
For my part nor on their part – and it was an emotionally very strong moment. Me
They convinced the goodness of their stories. Then their testimony was added
That of Sister Samuelle and together I have seen them transform, take strength. Samuelle
I renamed my steel leaflet. I told her she entered my study
fragile like a leaf and that same leaflet, from that encounter, came out
covered with steel. After so many years spent denouncing without being listened to,
Suddenly he realized that he was no longer alone. Recognizing each other made them
All stronger, they were and are threads from the same chassis ».

Who has abused them?
«In the case of my clients and also in the case of other sisters who told me
their experience, often the abusator was their spiritual father or the Father
confessor or someone who was however entrusted with the care and path of theirs
wedding ring. So let’s talk about a person to whom a nun entrusted totally because it is him
the way to get to God and to get there in the best possible way. The path of
True and full faith a religious entrusts him to his spiritual father ».

What kind of violence have they suffered?
«Of all kinds and it was gradual violence. The abusator begins with the
manipulation in small things, from the way of life of the religious, from the way of
dressing and combing, from the way of taking care, from the way of thinking, to the way of
live spirituality. In small steps the abusator sometimes also reaches physical abuse
that it is not said is the most serious. Psychological and spiritual abuses, in fact, can
be devastating for a religious. Let’s imagine what scope can have an abuse
of the genre on those who have chosen a life of faith and the violence it suffers is justified
by the advertising as an act wanted by God ».

What did it get angry than these stories?
«The fact that my clients had already repeatedly denounced the abuses suffered e
they have not been listened to nor believed. These women had already reported
within the ecclesiastical institutions, and not once, yet it is never
happened nothing to their abusator. And this is something that makes you get angry so that the
painful path that abused them should be accompanied, assisted and
supported by the Church. The Church itself can only benefit from freeing itself
of people who also hurt the same ecclesiastical institution. Cover who
He commits abuse hurts twice, not only to the victim, but also to the Church. Glory
He denounced for the first time in ’94 and we are still here to talk about it, while his
Abusator for thirty years has continued to make life ever. Indeed, he acquired
prestige in its ecclesial activity and credibility ».

The judicial process is at what point is it?
«The only procedure currently pending is canonical nature, because
For the Italian state, the crime is prescribed. All my clients have denounced the
same person and seems imminent a trial against him at the dicastery for
The doctrine of faith. This would already be a step forward, even if what little
We know we learn it from the press. Since April last year, in fact, when I
I deposited some complaints for my clients, I have not received even one
communication by the dicastery for the doctrine of faith. This lack of
listening and consideration towards the victims I find it a lack of respect
unacceptable”.

Have you received pressure?
«The pressures are part of the uncomfortable causes. The history of the complaints of these
Women is a story that does not like. And themselves, the victims were precisely
insult in various ways. In any case, the fault is always theirs, never of the advertising ».

What image has it remained most impressed than what she listened to?
«Glory that says that his abusator used the image of the Trinity for
Forcing her to have sexual intercourse. Here, I think such a situation
blasphem, as well as painful, can only oblige a reflection
on the drama of the phenomenon. Another element of reflection is loneliness. One of the things I understood in all the stories, not only of my clients, but also of the other testimonies that I have collected, and were many, it is the solitude of those who suffer abuse. My clients e
Not only them, the first invitations to give up, received them from those who would have
He had to tell them: “Come on, let’s go to report”. None of the stories that me
I collected testify to aid received within the community. Finally, it struck me
as much as these stories, in the brutality of the methodology used
From the advertising, they are all the same ».

Have you found other complaints in the archives for example?
«There is nothing that can be consulted. Some religious told me about
have been forced to abort following a pregnancy resulting from abuse. Not
There is no census of this terrible phenomenon. Who knows how many it happened,
I fear many. There is a submerged world that must be absolutely
Debellato. First of all, the Church must intervene to regulate this phenomenon
so that the victims can feel free, immediately, to report what is happening,
out of their community. The religious must not limit themselves to denouncing the abuses suffered to their bishop. Like all women who suffer violence, they must go to report their abusers
To the police, to the carabinieri, to a magistrate. Must contact the judicial authorities.
Because a priest who performs these things, who abuses a religious, must not
Being simply moved to another parish must go to jail ».