|
Re: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Story of 1/5/03 |
| Bill Smith’s article entitled “Nuns as Sexual Victims Get Little Notice,”
published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of Sunday, January 5, 2003, and
carried in other newspapers throughout the country, was based on a study
done by three St. Louis University researchers, and published in 1998.
The article implied that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious deliberately
hid the study results by asking the researchers not to publish their findings
in the popular press but rather in two professional journals and the periodical
Review for Religious. One of the researchers is quoted as saying
that, “[Women religious] don’t wash [their] dirty laundry in the public;
[they say] ‘We’ll take care of it.’” A former priest is quoted as
saying, “[Female church leaders can be] as much a part of this toxic environment
of cover-up and denial [as male Church leaders.]”
Some facts might be helpful. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious did not initiate, call for, or design the study. LCWR responded to the request of the researchers to provide a database from which to draw a random sample for the study. And in 1998 when the results were shared, there were few surprises to LCWR, primarily because long before then, congregations of women religious were already aware of the sexual abuse histories of their members and were doing something about it. In the mid-80’s I was a therapist working for the Archdiocese of St. Louis exclusively with women religious. At that time, another sister and I organized a conference featuring a noted speaker on the topic of sexual abuse. We expected about 50 participants to attend. In fact, over 300 sisters came – members and leaders - from all the local religious congregations. Before leaving my ministry in St. Louis in 1989, I had worked with numerous individuals and groups of religious women survivors of abuse – all supported and funded by their religious congregations. Increased consciousness was hardly limited to my practice, or to the St. Louis area. Sisters in all parts of the country were aware of the issues, and were proactive in making services and educational opportunities available to their members. So, it is a serious misrepresentation to say that religious “have made no changes as a result of the report.” Perhaps a more accurate statement would be to say that, long before the results of the study appeared, congregations of women religious were attuned to the issue, and had invested large amounts of time, energy and resources in the healing of their members. To suggest that women religious have been part of some cover-up because the results of the study were not published in the mainstream press is simply inaccurate and unjust. The results of the study were available, especially to those who needed it most – members of religious congregations and the practitioners who worked with them. The leaders of LCWR in 1998 discouraged making the results of the study
available through the popular media lest the data be sensationalized.
According to Merriam-Webster, to sensationalize is to create “a quick,
intense, and usually superficial interest, curiosity, or emotional reaction.”
It seems that those wise women were absolutely right.
Carole Shinnick, SSND, LCSW
Silver Spring, MD 20910 |
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