‘The Church betrays us’: More Catholic school abuse victims

speak up

Ivany Atina Arbi The Jakarta Post

Jakarta / Thu, August 13, 2020 / 10:11 am

"Two more victims of childhood sexual abuse at a Catholic school have spoken up following collaborative reports between The Jakarta Post and Tirto.id on abuse in the Catholic Church, as the Church continues to remain passive in dealing with sexual assault allegations.

Now grown women, the victims, Anna and Vivian, who chose pseudonyms to protect their privacy, said they read the reports of Sisca and Ellen, also pseudonyms, and found similarities between their experiences.

Anna and Vivian reached out to the collaboration team shortly after the reports were published last month in the hopes of bringing broader awareness to the case and "ending the perpetrator's years of lies".

Vivian said a priest at the Maria Bunda Karmel (MBK) parish still texted her from time to time, asking personal questions such as whether she was married. He also asked her to send him pictures of her. The last message sent was in May.

Anna said she experienced abuse – allegedly from the same priest – about 15 years ago when she was a student at Sang Timur Catholic Junior High School, which is located next to the MBK parish.

As a Catholic, she was mandated to attend school confessions twice a year, and that was when she said the abuse began.

The priest, she recalled, "would run his hand up and down my chest while I sat kneeling in front of him during confession. He did it so carefully that as a 15-year-old, I was not sure if it was his way of showing unconditional love to us, or if it was something else."

The groping, Anna further said, went on for years and happened six to eight times during mandatory confessions until she graduated from the school. "Each time, I left the confession room feeling awkward, but I did not know what to think of it, nor what to do about it."

The mandatory confessions took place in a chapel, instead of a traditional partitioned confessional, which allowed the religious leader to make direct contact with his students.

Anna, afraid her stories would be dismissed by people who regarded the clergy as "old, harmless and loving", chose to bury them until 10 years later when she got together with her childhood friends. She was surprised to know that two of her friends admitted that the same person often asked them to kiss his cheeks upon leaving the confession room.

"I knew there was something not right about this priest. And so for years, we all lived with this fact and truth that he had abused his power and authority, and exploited the innocence of these girls," she added.

Vivian, also a former Sang Timur student, said the same "old" priest used to kiss her cheek and the corner of her lips several times during morning blessings between 2013 and 2014. She told her parents but they dismissed it, saying it was probably the priest's way of showing his affection, "like showing a grandfather's love for his grandchild"."

more here:

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/08/12/the-church-betrays-us-more-catholic-school-abuse-victims-speak-up.html