About Pastor Make It Woman Vicars as Sex Slave

Paus Franciskus's statement about a number of nuns who were victims of sex slaves of pastors and bishops directed the spotlight to old cases that occurred several years back. Reports say such cases have been widespread for a long time, ranging from Italy, Chile, India to Africa.

As reported by The Associated Press, Thursday (02/07/2019), one of the cases occurred in Italy about 20 years ago, when a local priest committed sexual violence against a nun who was confessing his sins.

"The case opened a big wound in me. I pretended that it never happened," the nun told The Associated Press in an article in July 2018.

In India, a nun openly reported a local bishop to the police, whom he said had raped him 13 times over two years. This kind of thing is certainly unimaginable to happen in the past few years. The bishop was arrested in September 2018 after being deactivated by Pope Francis.

Another case occurred in Chile, with a number of local nuns delivering publicly on national television about their stories being harassed by priests and even other fellow nuns. The nuns revealed how their superiors in the church did nothing to stop it.

In recent times - especially because of #MeToo's sexual nonviolence movement, nuns in various countries began to dare to talk about cases of sexual violence they experienced after decades of silence. Most sexual violence is carried out by pastors and bishops in one church environment with them.

Investigations of The Associated Press show similar cases emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Similar cases have become a global problem and are widespread, according to The Associated Press, also triggered by the universal tradition of second-class status of nuns in the Catholic Church and their adherence to the men who were their superiors.

The issue of sexual violence against nuns rose when the world was shocked by the many sexual crime scandals against children by priests and bishops. How widespread the cases of sexual violence against nuns occur, is still unclear. Victims are reluctant to report for fear of not being trusted. Whereas the leaders of the Catholic Church are reluctant to admit that a number of pastors and bishops ignored vows of celibacy, knowing their secrets would be safe.

For in the African region, cases of sexual violence that occur are not small. One of them was revealed in 2013 in Uganda, when a prominent pastor wrote a letter to his superiors which said the priests in his area had an affair with the nuns. The letter did not lead to an investigation, but instead made the priest be sanctioned and had to apologize.

Long before these cases occurred in recent years, covert reports for high-ranking Catholic Church officials revealed that the practice of sexual violence of priests and bishops towards nuns took place in Africa since the 1990s.

The results of a study conducted by the late Maura O'Donohue nun in 1994, one of which revealed that there were about 29 nuns in a church environment who were pregnant. The study was conducted for six years in as many as 23 countries in Africa. The O'Donohue report said nuns were considered 'safe' sexual partners for pastors who were worried about being infected with HIV if they had intimate relationships with sex workers or other women outside the church.

Four years later, another report prepared by Marie McDonald nuns called acts of sexual abuse and rape of nuns in Africa by priests 'quite common'. Even sometimes, said McDonald's reports, the nuns arrived pregnant and were forced to have abortions by priests.

The Vatican has taken action for various cases that have occurred in the past few years, such as the case in Chile which led to the calling of all Chilean Bishops to Rome by Pope Francis. There, Bishops from Chile were offered to resign en masse. But it is not known for certain whether the cases that occurred decades ago like in Africa have reached clarity.