On February 5, 2019, Pope Francis, for the first time, publicly admitted that Catholic nuns are sexually abused and exploited by Catholic priests.
On that day, Catholics women, three being survivors of clergy sex abuse, spoke publicly about their experience of abuse by clerics, and the additional abuse they endured at the hands of their religious superiors and churchmen.
Because Dr. Reisinger boldly spoke “truth to power,” Father Hermann Geissler, an Austrian priest at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who had abused his sacred authority in the confessional with Reisinger and sexually assaulted her, was forced to resign from his post.
The decision is not a surprise to the many victims of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church who have seen the institution protect their clerics over victims -- children, seminarians, vulnerable adults, and, of course, women. Churchmen would, once again, dismiss the testimony of a victim to do damage control.
Yet, even obstructionist clerics cannot stop Reisinger from changing the Church. No doubt, her words and witness had a impact on the Vatican evoking new confessions.
Born in Germany in 1983, at the age of 19, she joined the Catholic religious community Das Werk, which maintains close ties to the Roman Curia. Reisinger was subjected to abuse from her superiors and rape and sexual assault by priests. In 2011, Reisinger escaped Das Werk, began her theological studies, and completed them in 2014 in Germany.
Reisinger's experience and her intellectual acumen are the foundation for her analysis of the dysfunctional structures of the Church and religious life. Of the institution Reisinger notes, "Something is fundamentally flawed," and calls for a new constitution for our church.
She writes that Catholic leaders from the Congregation for Religious Life have long been aware of the abuse of nuns because Marie McDonald of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa, Benedictine Esther Fangman, and, above all, Maura O'Donohue from the Medical Missionaries of Mary reported on the widespread problem back in the mid-1990s.
Horror stories of forced abortions, pregnant nuns being forced from their religious communities into a life of poverty, and even the death of nuns were all captured in the reports. Yet, Vatican officials kept the reports secret until they were forced into the public sphere by National Catholic Reporter. And when Vatican officials did speak, they minimized the crimes and sins at every turn, a pattern that continues even with the Pope's 2019 admission.
Reisinger writes about the abuse of nuns within religious communities, an issue that organizations like the LCWR and UISG have been loathe to air. She also critiques the structures and culture that keep most women in a position of unquestioning obedience to a superior. The spiritual and sexual abuse within religious communities has been another dark side that Reisinger prophetically confronts.
It is clear that Dr. Doris Wagner Reisinger is one of the rising voices for reform in the Catholic Church today. FutureChurch is proud to honor her with the 2020 Christine Schenk Award for Young Catholic Leaders. She will join FutureChurch at our annual Fall Event this Thursday, October 22nd at 7:00pm ET. Please join us as we honor Dr. Reisinger and hear her speak about her work. |
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