On my Your Radical Truth Podcast, my guest was Mary Dispenza, who serves on the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
The title for this podcast is “The Habit of Abuse: A Journey of Healing, Activism, and Wholeness.”
Sadly, today there are so many Catholics who believe that this issue is resolved. Something like “out of sight, out of mind.” Or other Catholics feel that any sexual abuse victim, right off the bat, is lying.
Let’s face it, if money is being offered, no matter what the organization is, there will be individuals figuring in on how they can get a piece of that pie for themselves. Their own greediness is reflected back now to any other victim of abuse in regard to the truth of their own story.
The systemic issue of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church is mirrored in the story of any abuse victim. Another common misconception I have heard is others believing that this is only a one-time thing. Being raped is beyond some one-time thing.
Mary herself, being an abuse survivor, I wanted her to be a guest on my podcast so that she could speak on the truth of this issue. However, can one consider living 24/7 with this trauma simply a one-time thing?
Mary elaborated on how her life was literally turned upside down, being present in your physical body at school while mentally not being able to concentrate. Having now your own relationship with your immediate family forever changed. Mary indeed left us with the stark, awful reality of sexual abuse.
The next area of my discussion with Mary delved into her years as a Religious Sister. Perhaps the next disclosure will be something that you never previously knew about yet indeed does exist. Mary divulged how a Superior Sister abused her.
She feels this issue of abuse by Sisters “might just skirt under the radar and never see the light of the day. I asked her why?
Mary said, ‘Who wants to think that especially a Woman of God would harm a child? For the sake of survivors and future children, it is so important to come to terms with this.
The Church has yet to touch on this.'” Mary also mentioned the list of offending Religious Sisters being very minimal. When I inquired why the heads of the various Religious Sisters orders are so hesitant, Mary replied, “The culture of religious women works against bringing out your dirty laundry, so to speak. You want to protect your sisters, keep their sins under cover.”
Finally, Mary ended the show quoting a thought from the poem by Mary Oliver. Mary said, “How will you live your one wild life? They took a lot of power, but we still have the power to decide how we are going to live this one wild life.”
To listen to the entire episode, CLICK HERE.
