While we are talking about people who may or may not have been in the Catholic Church as a priest or nun, it seems a good time to address a comment made on Candy's blog by Swylv.
Swylv wrote:
back when I first moved to the area I live in now, some family let me borrow some comic book style publication that told of a man's ordeal on becoming a priest....I googled it just now and some of the comics I read are here http://www.chick.com/catalog/com...g/ comiclist.asp
the one's about alberto...Now I didn't read all of them but am glad to have finally but a name to something I read over 10 years ago...and they too talk of tunnels linking the priest quarters and the nuns housing and many dead baby bodies in between....
This is in reference to Alberto Rivera, who is featured prominently in several of Jack Chick's comics. Rivera claimed to be a former Jesuit, and makes many incredible claims about the Catholic Church. Because of the popularity of Chick tracts, I would guess that more people are familiar with Rivera's story than with the Maria Monk/Sister Charlotte tale.
I admit, I haven't bothered to read the comics in question. Catholic Answers says that Rivera claims the Catholic Church is responsible for "Islam, Communism, the Masons, and the Klan; that it controls the Illuminati, the Mafia, and the New Age movement; that it created the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, and is databasing the name of every Protestant church member for a future inquisition."
But you don't have to take the word of a Catholic source that Rivera was never a Jesuit. A protestant named Gary Metz wrote wrote articles in both Cornerstone and Christianity Today in 1981 exposing Rivera as a fraud. Sadly, these articles are not online, but you can read excerpts at Dave Armstrong's site.
Gary Dale Cearley has written an entire book called Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness about the subject.
10 comments:
Not believing or agreeing with a story does not make it an urban legend. Many similar stories of abuse to and by nuns are documented and have been found to be true by courts.
Young woman dying in startling numbers in convent http://www.scribd.com/doc/44554/THE-DREADFUL-DRACULA-HOUSES-OR-CONVENTS-OF-KERALA
Questions raised over handling of nun abuse http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news2-Aksisters.htm
page dedicated to helping those who have experienced abuse by nunshttp://www.abusebynuns.com/resources.html
group sued for abuse by nunhttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060607/ai_n16457245
movie is based on true stories of abuse in convent http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=3129&cn=2
a time in the history of the Catholic Church and religious orders of which we are not proud http://www.beliefnet.com/story/130/story_13095_1.html
church in crisis http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_2_39/ai_94129130
support group for women raising children fathered by priests http://www.marriedpriests.org/HOLYINNOCENTS.htm
paternity finally established in priest case http://childrenofpriests.org/web/content/view/3/38/
priest unrepentant after crucifying nun http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2005-06-18-romanian-priest_x.htm
Ex-nun tells of rape by African priest http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=20833
Nun freed from dungeon http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0149-7952(200002)23%3A1%3C69%3ATSCOTN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N
oops, I meant to put that in the search engine.
Amy I don't think that anyone is saying that nuns are less susceptible to rape and physical abuse than any other women from any other walks of life. I recently read that Brook Astor who recently passed at 105, the rich philanthropist, was a victim of elder abuse.
Abuse happens.
What we are objecting to is the inference that this is the status quo for ALL nuns, everywhere, throughout time and that it's done with the blessings of the Catholic Church.
I've posted plenty of links to actual nun blogs. Why don't you visit them and see what the average contemporary nun's life is like. I think you will be quite pleased.
As far as this story a likely urban legend is the similarities in plot almost verbatim. It does make it suspicious.
I think you misunderstood me on that....I was just glad to finally have a name for a few comicstyle things I read...seriously I could not even remember the name and that days post prompted me to google it....isn't it cool to be able to google things these days.
plus you left off the most important part of my post...and I AM NOT SAYING OR ACCUSSING ANY PRIEST OR NUNS OF KILLING BABIES ... just the thought of it and it is true in my town, just last week on the news a lady who works for a fast food restaurant went into a bathroom delivered a baby and tried to flush it...that's where the cops found her, desperately saying "it won't go down" ....just sick!
I feel sorry for those babies....here I am desperately crying out to Yahshua for more children and there are people in the world killing babies....we hear about people in our own city that try to kill their newborns...it just saddens me.
Swylv, (Hey, do those letter stand for something, because I have to double check it everytime I type them. Is there an easier way to remember it?)
I was just using your comment as a spring board to address the Alberto Rivera story, because I thought it likely that others would think of those chick comics when they read Sister Charlotte's story.
Amy, I was calling that particular story an urban legend. As I wrote on your blog, I understand that abuse does happen in our church, as in others.
However, the story which involves nuns being held prisoner under lock and key in a convent, being systematically raped by priests, a tunnel under the convent, and lots of dead babies in a lime pit/sewer is an urban legend.
PS--The fact that there are support groups out there for children who were fathered by priests would, I think, tend to indicate that such children do not usually end up in lime pits or sewers. :)
Could you post the link again for "Young women dying in startling number in convent" with a break in the link? Most of your links got the ends chopped off, and I can handle a dropped ml from .html just fine, but that one I need more help with.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44554/THEDREADFULDRACULAHOUSESORCONVENTSOFKERALA
I took the dashes out. The end should read the-dreadful-dracula-houses-or-convents-of-kerala
I'm not sure I understand what you mean that certain parts of the story are urban legend as they are similar to other documented finds in convents and monestaries. That was partly why I posted the list of articles.
Also, the support groups are mostly used by laity. The pregnany of a nun would be a much bigger problem and need to be covered up I would think. Unless the convent was a children's charity, finding homes for 'orphans', it would be suspicous for them to repeatedly have infants in the convent.
And, yes, things happen in all chruches, but how does that discredit this particular woman?
Post a Comment