We know about the little boys, but Catholic priests had other victims, too.
Several nuns are now coming forward to tell the Associated Press their own stories of abuse and assault, in what reporters Nicole Winfield and Rodney Muhumuza are calling “Vatican Meets #MeToo”:
An AP examination has found that cases have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, demonstrating that the problem is global and pervasive, thanks to the universal tradition of sisters’ second-class status in the Catholic Church and their ingrained subservience to the men who run it.
Some nuns are now finding their voices, buoyed by the #MeToo movement and the growing recognition that adults can be victims of sexual abuse when there is an imbalance of power in a relationship. The sisters are going public in part because of years of inaction by church leaders, even after major studies on the problem in Africa were reported to the Vatican in the 1990s.
It’s that last bit that’s especially disturbing. The victims had nowhere to turn. If they reported the abuse, it was bound to reach the same people who covered up the child abuse scandals.
The AP says the Vatican doesn’t often hear about these incidents, which also means they have no plan for how to handle them.
… the Catholic Church has no clear measures in place to investigate and punish bishops who themselves abuse or allow abusers to remain in their ranks — a legal loophole that has recently been highlighted by the [Cardinal Theodore E.] McCarrick case.
Another problem? Some priests accused of assault just blame the women, as is common in patriarchal religions. She wanted it, the men say, suggesting that they were too helpless to stop the thing they were doing.
And if abuse and assault weren’t enough, the consequences of these incidents can lead to even more pushback against Catholic teachings.
And when these women become pregnant?
“Mainly she has an abortion. Even more than once. And he pays for that. A religious sister has no money. A priest, yes,” [clergy sexual abuse expert Karlijn Demasure] said.
It may be tempting to blame the Church’s own rules for making the entire situation worse. When celibacy is required and contraception and birth control are forbidden, what did you think would happen? But that’s a cop-out. There’s no excuse for abuse. And remember: the priests signed up for this life.
This is only the latest example of Catholic Church’s own leaders doing the unthinkable — all without any real consequences. So we’re back to the same questions that were asked when we learned about all the sexual assaults on children: Why would anyone remain in the Catholic Church after all these reports? Why would they give money to an organization that can’t protect its own leaders? How could they trust anyone who thinks this is the group they want to join?
May the exodus out of the Church be even swifter this time around.
ok ‘she wanted it’ normally is one thing, it’s basically saying ‘it was consensual, she’s lying’ and you have a he said she said situation. But in the catholic church consensual sex is ALSO forbidden for preists right? they take a vow of celibacy?
if they say ‘she wanted it’ doesn’t that mean that they’re at the very least admitting to breaking their vow of celibacy? shouldn’t that mean they get punished/ stop being a priest?
‘he says he did something that’s forbidden, she says he did something WAY WAY WORSE that’s also forbidden, therefore we shall…ignore it and brush it under the rug’?
That would certainly seem to be the case to me, yes.
Hello everyone! This is Fancy. She is a ~12-13-week-old dilute tortoiseshell kitten my girlfriend found on the street while delivering pizza. Her long coat makes it hard to see how thin she is, but she is very thin. Her bones are so prominent that we have to cuddle her wrapped in a towel or she can’t get comfortable. (Yes, that is exactly as heartbreaking as it sounds.)
In addition to being dangerously underweight, she is suffering from an abscessed bite wound and some sort of problem with her tail, as well as a heavy parasite load that is giving her runny poop issues and sapping her energy. She is too small to even have the shots given to babies half her age.
Despite all this, Fancy is heart-meltingly sweet. She loves people. She talks a lot and even vocalizes softly while purring herself to sleep. She is alert but she tires easily because she has no energy reserves and right now she basically only sleeps, eats, poops, sleeps, cuddles, talks about everything she does, eats some more, and sleeps.
She looks rough now but with some TLC she will be a beautiful cat with a nice, low-maintenance medium-length silky coat and vibrant lemon-lime eyes. We want to find her a forever home, but we can’t do that until she is healthy enough!
We took her to the vet on Monday, July 30 and she has been wormed, treated for earmites, and tested clean for FeLV and heartworms, and her abscess has been cleaned out, which is all good, but she has some challenges.
The vet says that at 3.6 lbs. she is ½ to ¾ of a pound underweight, which is a big difference when you are as small as she is. Imagine being 30 lbs. underweight. That’s scary. This is the biggest hurdle right now. The odds are absolutely in her favor, this is a problem we can fix, but she is still severely malnourished and that presents a very real risk.
Also her tail doesn’t work so great. She can only move the first inch or so closest to her behind, and sometimes it’s hard to get it out of the way when she uses the litter box. If it doesn’t improve as she gets stronger the vet wants to take X-rays to see what’s causing it and what needs to be done.
She has a checkup in 10 days but right now we cannot afford to take her to it, let alone pay for any more unexpected urgent treatment, because today’s vet appointment blew through everything we had saved back.
I’ve set a goal of $700 to cover what we had to pay today for testing, wound treatment, and medication, and the things we had to get to take care of her (piddle pad crate liners, her own toys, some special food to get her weight up, baby wipes to clean up her bottom, all that sort of thing) plus some extra for her next checkup, her shots, and some extra for imaging or in case something unexpected comes up (most likely another abscess, a respiratory infection, or gastritis). We have other cats, one of whom has kidney disease and needs specialized food that costs kind of a lot, so this is putting a big strain on us financially.
Keep spreading the link! We reached our first goal and I’m bumping it up to cover future expenses and surgeries. She also needs to go in to see the vet sooner than I thought because she’s having a little trouble with the abscess.
I will update later tonight with a link to a wishlist for supplies that would help us take the very best care of her we possibly can. She had nothing, she didn’t even have a name. Now she has a name, a blanket, and many, many people on the internet who care about her and want to help her get better and spoil her. You are all rock stars, you’re amazing.
We can now cover imaging for her tail and begin covering treatment that I strongly suspect will wind up being an amputation. She has no feeling in the tip at all, and if she can’t use it for balance or communication and can’t move it out of the way of things like feet, doors, other cats, and so on, it will need to come off as it will only pose a risk. I hope that won’t be necessary.
Also, it’s too early to do it now, she’s too weak, but someday she will be a grown-up girl and will need to be spayed. We’d also like to microchip her. We want to make her as safe and as strong and as healthy as she can be.
Thank you so, so much. Look at this sweet little face. Look at those bright little eyes. That’s what a survivor looks like. She’s a little fighter. Thank you for giving her a chance. We’re gonna make it a real, real good one.
And WOW, can you BELIEVE those EARS?
Day 3 Fancy update!
We hit our second goal! We are moving forward with diagnostics to find out whether she can keep the tail or not, so we can get a quote for what it would cost to help her either way, and adjust the goal again if we need to.
Fancy’s energy is definitely up! She is bathing herself very well, she sharpened her claws a little today, she’s been stretching and walking around, and is feeling up to exploring a little. She even did her first naughty – she bothered a (nontoxic, harmless) houseplant we thought was out of her reach. Not so! She had the energy to make a big-girl jump to get to it! Then, tuckered out, she fell asleep on Auntie Bear.
We are SO proud of her!
Unfortunately, she has also licked her cleaned-out abscess raw (GROSS, FANCY!) so she’s going back to the vet today to get that addressed somehow, and while she is there we’re going to ask the vet to go ahead and do the imaging for her tail so that he will have several days to look at the films and consult with a radiologist before her checkup next Thursday.
This is only possible because of you! She is getting x-rays and going to the vet to get cleaned up again because of you! You made this possible! All you fine people who donated and reblogged and sent kind words and kind thoughts!
Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.
#nofilter
Just in case you need your heart melted, this was Fancy’s very first box! Look how excited she is!
Hello everyone! This is Fancy. She is a ~12-13-week-old dilute tortoiseshell kitten my girlfriend found on the street while delivering pizza. Her long coat makes it hard to see how thin she is, but she is very thin. Her bones are so prominent that we have to cuddle her wrapped in a towel or she can’t get comfortable. (Yes, that is exactly as heartbreaking as it sounds.)
In addition to being dangerously underweight, she is suffering from an abscessed bite wound and some sort of problem with her tail, as well as a heavy parasite load that is giving her runny poop issues and sapping her energy. She is too small to even have the shots given to babies half her age.
Despite all this, Fancy is heart-meltingly sweet. She loves people. She talks a lot and even vocalizes softly while purring herself to sleep. She is alert but she tires easily because she has no energy reserves and right now she basically only sleeps, eats, poops, sleeps, cuddles, talks about everything she does, eats some more, and sleeps.
She looks rough now but with some TLC she will be a beautiful cat with a nice, low-maintenance medium-length silky coat and vibrant lemon-lime eyes. We want to find her a forever home, but we can’t do that until she is healthy enough!
We took her to the vet on Monday, July 30 and she has been wormed, treated for earmites, and tested clean for FeLV and heartworms, and her abscess has been cleaned out, which is all good, but she has some challenges.
The vet says that at 3.6 lbs. she is ½ to ¾ of a pound underweight, which is a big difference when you are as small as she is. Imagine being 30 lbs. underweight. That’s scary. This is the biggest hurdle right now. The odds are absolutely in her favor, this is a problem we can fix, but she is still severely malnourished and that presents a very real risk.
Also her tail doesn’t work so great. She can only move the first inch or so closest to her behind, and sometimes it’s hard to get it out of the way when she uses the litter box. If it doesn’t improve as she gets stronger the vet wants to take X-rays to see what’s causing it and what needs to be done.
She has a checkup in 10 days but right now we cannot afford to take her to it, let alone pay for any more unexpected urgent treatment, because today’s vet appointment blew through everything we had saved back.
I’ve set a goal of $700 to cover what we had to pay today for testing, wound treatment, and medication, and the things we had to get to take care of her (piddle pad crate liners, her own toys, some special food to get her weight up, baby wipes to clean up her bottom, all that sort of thing) plus some extra for her next checkup, her shots, and some extra for imaging or in case something unexpected comes up (most likely another abscess, a respiratory infection, or gastritis). We have other cats, one of whom has kidney disease and needs specialized food that costs kind of a lot, so this is putting a big strain on us financially.
Keep spreading the link! We reached our first goal and I’m bumping it up to cover future expenses and surgeries. She also needs to go in to see the vet sooner than I thought because she’s having a little trouble with the abscess.
I will update later tonight with a link to a wishlist for supplies that would help us take the very best care of her we possibly can. She had nothing, she didn’t even have a name. Now she has a name, a blanket, and many, many people on the internet who care about her and want to help her get better and spoil her. You are all rock stars, you’re amazing.
We can now cover imaging for her tail and begin covering treatment that I strongly suspect will wind up being an amputation. She has no feeling in the tip at all, and if she can’t use it for balance or communication and can’t move it out of the way of things like feet, doors, other cats, and so on, it will need to come off as it will only pose a risk. I hope that won’t be necessary.
Also, it’s too early to do it now, she’s too weak, but someday she will be a grown-up girl and will need to be spayed. We’d also like to microchip her. We want to make her as safe and as strong and as healthy as she can be.
Thank you so, so much. Look at this sweet little face. Look at those bright little eyes. That’s what a survivor looks like. She’s a little fighter. Thank you for giving her a chance. We’re gonna make it a real, real good one.
So I was working two jobs, I ended up having a meltdown (being mentally ill + the pressure of two jobs = recipe for disaster) and losing that job. My brother is supposed to be paying half the bills but has only covered a quarter, I’m about $150 short for my rent due on Wednesday.
I don’t want to just ask for money, but if anyone is willing to help me that would be badass- my PayPal is c.newago@yahoo.com or cash app $binesiikwens. I’m also open for beadwork orders!! Below is a picture of my most recent orders. I can whip up earrings, beaded rope necklaces, or even a small medallion pretty fast. I also sell beading supplies for my primary job, shop here or here
Miigwech!
More photos of recent work!
Message me to place an orderrrrr
This is my current project, up for grabs! Will be on fingernail posts and edged with rainbow colors!
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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