African scholar on International Theological Commission discusses research on sexual abuse
September 11, 2024
» Continue to this story on National Catholic Reporter
CWN Editor's Note: Sister Josée Ngalula, the first African woman appointed to the International Theological Commission, discussed her research on sexual abuse, especially the abuse of consecrated men and women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sister Ngalula told the National Catholic Reporter that “I was very surprised to hear from the responses that there were females among the perpetrators of abuse, both on other females and on men. I therefore had to correct the rumor that in Africa only women suffer.”
However, “abuse by clerics accounted for over 80% of cases, including clerics abusing nuns and clerics abusing young male religious under their authority,” she said. “In this context, clerical abusers generally consider the laity and nuns as a flock of ‘subordinates’ who are spiritually dependent and called primarily to obedience.”
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