Religieuses abusées, l'autre scandale de l'Église

Religieuses abusées, l'autre scandale de l'Église (lit. 'Abused religious, the other scandal of the Church') is a French documentary television film by Eric Quintin and Marie-Pierre Raimbault in collaboration with Elizabeth Drevillon. The film, which was first shown on Arte on 5 March 2019,[1] deals with sexualised violence by clerics against nuns and the attempts of the Catholic Church to cover up these acts.[2]

Religieuses abusées, l'autre scandale de l'Église
Poster
Directed byEric Quintin, Marie-Pierre Raimbault
Country of originFrance
Original language(s)French
Production
Producer(s)Arte
Running time97 minutes
Release
Original release
  • 5 March 2019 (2019-03-05)

Synopsis

The film shows that nuns all over the world have been and are sexually abused by clerics hierarchically above them. The case of Marie-Dominique Philippe, who raped nuns for decades without the church intervening, plays a central role.

The systematic rapes even extend to structures in which religious sisters such as sex slaves were sold to priests.

In 2018, the Vatican acknowledged that the reports were well-founded and that the problem persisted.

The filmmakers tried to arrange a meeting of two protagonists of the film with Pope Francis. Since the Vatican only offered a private audience without witnesses, the women concerned rejected this meeting.

Backgrounds

The film is based on two years of research.

Doris Wagner, one of the (former) nuns affected to have her say in the film, had already previously drawn attention to the problem of sexualised violence against nuns, for example in her autobiographical book “Nicht mehr ich - die wahre Geschichte einer jungen Ordensfrau” or with an article in the Catholic cultural magazine Stimmen der Zeit. She could also be seen in the film #Female Pleasure. In 2019 her second book Spiritual Abuse in the Catholic Church was published.

In the 1990s, several nuns had already drawn attention to the widespread sexual abuse in African monasteries, among them Maura O'Donohue, who in 1994 sent a report to Rome on cases in 23 countries. This report was only published in 2001 by the National Catholic Reporter. Only then did a statement from Rome confirm these cases, but despite the many documented cases from different countries, the problem was relativized as "within a limited geographical area".[3] Later that year, the then Pope John Paul II asked for an apology to the victims in a message.

Reception

On April 20, 2019, a court issued an injunction prohibiting one individual from continuing to present the film to Arte in its media library, whereupon it was removed. Arte's going to court against that.[4]

See also

References
  1. TV 5 monde (Retrieved 23 April 2019).
  2. Fournier, Audrey; Chambraud, Cécile (5 March 2019). "« Religieuses abusées, l'autre scandale de l'Eglise » : une enquête choc contre le Vatican sur Arte". Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  3. Chris Hedges, Documents Allege Abuse of Nuns by Priests. The New York Times from 21 March 2001. (Retrieved 23 April 2019).
  4. Benjamin Emonts, Arte nimmt Missbrauchs-Doku aus dem Programm, Süddeutsche Zeitung from 23 April 2019 (Retrieved 23 April 2019).
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