Women make up the majority of abuse victims at Foreign Missions

Two out of every three victims at the French Foreign Missions religious order are women.

Before the Foreign Missions, the Jesuits, and the Legionaries of Christ have issued partial reports of clergy sexual abuse for some of the countries or territories where they have been active.

By Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez

By the end of November, the French religious “order” known in English as Foreign Missions Society, issued its first report on instances of clergy sexual abuse and violence.

The report, available in PDF English here or Scribd here, follows the steps of the Sauvé Report issued before by a Commission created by the French national conference of Catholic bishops.

Although there are holes in the report, it also sheds light over key issues to understand the true nature of the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church at a global scale.

More so because of the nature of the so-called Foreign Missions Society (Missions Etrangères de Paris in French), based in France but with their main hubs of activity in Asian countries that were at some point part of the French empire.

The most notable finding of the report, one that contradicts the Roman Catholic hierarchy’s understanding of why abuse happens, is that the largest share of victims reported are not young males, as it used to be the case in the first two decades of the crisis, but females.

Almost two-thirds, a sixty percent share of the victims reported in the document are females, with 37 percent more known to be males and three percent victims whose sex remains unknown.

Although the report only deals with sexual violence within the Foreign Missions, it confirms the fact that clergy sexual abuse is not limited to one gender or to the evil lone predators that Benedict XVI tried to sell in the first decade of this century as the culprits of the crisis.

Joseph Ratzinger, as much as his predecessor, John Paul II and many Cardinals and archbishops in the Roman Catholic Church have been relentless in making gay priests the guilty party of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, despite the fact that both male and female individuals are potential victims of abuse, from Canada to Argentina and from Mexico to the Philippines.

Will shame change sides?

The Foreign Missions’ report offers a similar picture to the one coming out of the diaries of noted predators linked to the Society of Jesus, the so-called Jesuits in Bolivia, and it is possible that as the “shame changes side”, to quote Giséle Pelicot, now a global icon of fight against sexual abuse, it will facilitate that more female victims come forward to talk about the abuse they were subject to.

Given that the report identifies 63 instances of clergy sexual abuse, it is possible to assume that we are talking about 40 to 41 females. The report states that it avoids the specific personal details or individual stories of the victims to protect their privacy and well-being.

However, as the case Pelicot proves, it is not actually the victims’ well-being what this approach at reporting sexual abuse cases achieves. The goal is to protect the identities of sexual predators and, more importantly perhaps, their superiors in the Roman Catholic Church, the structures of government in the countries where they operate, their accomplices, and their benefactors.

It is part of a more complex process, key to understand sexual abuse at large, but more relevant when dealing with clergy sexual abuse known as pedestalization.

Although is not possible to go into the details of how pedestalization or iconization happens, it is a process leading to place someone or something on a pedestal, elevating them to an idealized, often unrealistic, level of admiration or relevance. It involves a process to attach perfect or near-perfect qualities to the person or thing, ignoring their flaws and shortcomings.

A perfect example of pedestalization in the Spanish-speaking world would be that of Marcial Maciel. In the French-speaking world a good example would be that of Abbé Pierre, while in the English-speaking world the most recent non-Catholic example of this pedestalization would be that of Anglican layperson John Smyth.

The report stresses how, out of the 63 cases reported, only eight have been proven. However, the same report warns about its own limits. It emphasizes a low level of reporting. A possible explanation for it is that many victims may not have come forward.

The reader must take into consideration that the report deals with cases in jurisdictions with diverse laws and regulations regarding sexual abuse. Most of the cases come from France (19), followed by Thailand (10), and Cambodia (7).

Five territories appear as having only one case (Philippines, Maurice, Singapore, Vietnam, and one identified as Other European). Malaysia has two; Madagascar and Taiwan have three each. South Korea appears with four, and India and Japan a total of five each.

Similar patterns

Although the number of cases is small, when talking about the period in which the cases reported happened it shows a pattern similar to other reports. The graph after this paragraph, figure 3 p. 49 of the English-speaking version of the Foreign Missions report. It goes, decade by decade, from 1950 through the current decade. There are two peaks, one in the 1970s and another in the 2010s.

The Foreign Missions is now a small Roman Catholic order. Long gone are the days when they had 27 houses all over the world, with 848 priests and 855 religious males in the late 1960s. Now they barely can sustain 13 houses, with 154 priests and 170 non-ordained males, as the numbers they report to Rome, summarized here and on the graph after this paragraph show.

In that regard, the number of reported cases at this order are similar to the parameters set by the Sauvé Report that Los Angeles Press used back in 2023 to offer an estimate of the number of victims in more than 60 countries with large Roman Catholic populations linked after this paragraph.

In that regard it is possible to track a similarity between this and other reports as far as some of the peaks in the occurrence of clergy sexual abuse.

The first that comes to mind is the one the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, commissioned to a group of scholars affiliated to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, an entity affiliated to the City University of New York, in the first years of this century. The report The nature and scope of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons in the United States, 1950-2002, published in 2004, shows on p.28 its Figure 2.3.1, appearing after this paragraph.

As it is possible to see above, the curve in that report has a one-decade peak going from 1970 through 1980.

Similar curves appear, as one example in the report issued back in 2023 by the Illinois State Attorney’s Office report, although that report reaches all the way to 2020, while the USCCB’s stops in 2000, as the next graph shows.

The Illinois State Attorney’s Office is available here or here. Los Ángeles Press published a summary of the Illinois report available only in Spanish in the story linked below.

Peaks

Something similar happens in the Foreign Missions Society’s report, but with the most recent peak happening in the previous decade. It is hard to offer a conclusive explanation, but it could be a byproduct of the changes in the attitude of media, governments, and even the Catholic Church itself when dealing with clergy sexual abuse.

The shape of the curve in the Foreign Missions Society’s report is closer to the shape of the curve in the Sauvé Report, the document issued, back in 2021, by an independent commission set by the French Catholic bishops and led by Jean-Marc Sauvé, available in English here or here.

At the Sauvé Report one looks to an ever-increasing curve that could be the byproduct of how the very understanding of clergy sexual abuse has changed in France and elsewhere in countries with large populations of Roman Catholics.

This is more relevant in the Sauvé Report because, as its authors state they are talking about cases reported, and the dates shaping the curve are more recent but could be about cases from previous decades.

This is relevant also because, there is a hard wing or caucus within the Roman Catholic Church still adhering to the idea, misguided and unfounded, that the clergy sexual abuse crisis is a byproduct of modernity and modernization in that Church.

More specifically the most conservative wing in the national conferences of bishops in the United States, Mexico, and other countries still blame, even if only for the purpose of gaslighting the victims and avoiding facing their own responsibility in the crisis, the changes within and outside their Church in the 1960s and 1970s.

As far as the Foreign Missions report its authors warn about the need to be cautious when interpreting the data because, as it is we do not have access to full records of each case, especially when dealing with the issue of where some victims were located at the time of the incidents.

The causes of abuse

While the Report does not go into the exact causes of the abuse within the Foreign Missions, it helps to understand some of the contributing factors and systemic issues playing a role in the instances of clergy sexual abuse.

As it is usually the case, abuse of power and authority comes first. The report stresses the inherent power imbalance between priests and their flock. Even if the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic church claims priests are the servants of their flock, in actuality, priests exert disproportionate quotas of power as a byproduct of pedestalization and iconization happening even at the parish level.

That is more relevant when dealing with so-called “vulnerable individuals” like minors, women, and those seeking spiritual guidance. Predator clergymen can easily exploit this power differential, leading to abuse.

The report goes into some theological detail to explain how the abuse of the concept of “in personae Christi” (acting in the name of Christ) further amplifies this power, potentially making it easier for abusers to manipulate and control victims.

Another key feature, common to other Roman Catholic orders, is the lack of adequate safeguarding measures.

The report reveals a historical lack of robust safeguarding policies, procedures, and training within the Foreign Missions, common also to other orders. This creates an environment where abuse can happen and go unreported or unaddressed for years.

The very nature of the dioceses where the Foreign Missions do their job makes it harder, because they usually work in remote areas where communications are not easy, not only because of distance, but also because of the linguistic differences.

The report highlights how insufficient risk assessment and management means that so-called “vulnerable individuals” come to be under the reach of potential abusers without adequate protection.

In this respect, the very use of the notion of “vulnerable individuals” is problematic because, ultimately, given the very nature of Roman Catholic priesthood, as giving their member a special status above all other members of their Church, any person who is not a priest is inferior to that has become a caste of sorts within that Church.

The report acknowledges the influence of broader societal attitudes towards sexual abuse, particularly in the past. Those attitudes used to normalize or minimize abuse as such and its consequences.

It is common these days to find in the social media accounts of Roman Catholic priests calls to forgive abuse that are, by themselves, extremely abusive because they deny the consequences of abuse in their victims.

Culture of silence

The Foreign Missions report acknowledges that as a consequence a culture of silence and inaction within that order emerged, a culture to similar to what one sees these days with clergy fiercely defending noted predators as Marko Rupnik, with little or no respect for the victims of the Slovenian former Jesuit.

The Foreign Missions report adequately stresses how, in some countries, cultural norms and power structures may further exacerbate vulnerabilities and make it harder for victims to speak out. In this respect it is not hard to find similarities between what the report details and what we know now about abuse happening at the so-called Sodalitium of Christian Life in Peru and Colombia, or the Spaniard Jesuits in Bolivia.

Finally, the report talks about some of the individual factors. They stress how there are some personal predispositions and motivations contributing to clergy sexual abuse. Other elements are distorted beliefs, sometimes the byproduct of unsolved theological wars within the Roman Catholic Church, the lack of empathy, and a sense of entitlement.

In any case, the report adequately stresses the role that the lack of accountability and transparency plays in that religious order.

Although the authors highlight the history of the Foreign Missions as a contributing factor, due to the mobility of its members, and how this mobility allowed predator clerics to operate with impunity while discouraging victims from coming forward, it is clear that similar patterns exist in other orders.

The authors talk about the lack of clear communication and information sharing also created confusion and mistrust among those affected by abuse. On this regard, one cannot dismiss the issue of how Roman Catholic orders make as hard as possible to track down the assignments of priests and other religious personnel.

That attitude is more frequent in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds where bishops can always claim having no access to the necessary funds to run a diocesan website as the ones that exist in the English- and French-speaking worlds, where it is easy, especially in the United States and Canada, to track down the whereabouts of priests and more so of priests with credible accusations of abuse.

Reparations?

While the report does not outline a comprehensive plan for reparations, it does highlight the need for a multifaceted approach to address the harm caused to victims and survivors.

The authors identify some potential forms of reparation, although they are careful to stress that they depend on the specific needs and circumstances of each individual.

Among the suggestions they highlight financial compensation, whether as direct payments, trust funds, or the reimbursement of medical and psychological care. In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the inaction of the civil authorities leads some dioceses to try to force down psychological to please the bishops rather than to address the victims’ needs.

Los Ángeles Press published, back in 2023, the story of Joana, a victim of the diocese of Atlacomulco, North of Mexico City. The diocese there has been unwilling to acknowledge Joana’s right to choose her own therapist.

The diocese has been trying to force down on her therapy with a therapist who tries to blame Joana for the abuse she was subject when she was an underage girl. Her story is available after this paragraph, although only in Spanish.

The Foreign Missions report also talks about direct payments as a compensation to victims to address financial losses, medical expenses, and ongoing therapy costs. In Brazil and Mexico there are anecdotical accounts of informal agreements between the Roman Catholic dioceses or orders and victims who happen to be members of the families of the local elites.

The authors suggest the possibility of providing free or subsidized access to mental health professionals, therapists, and medical specialists to address the physical and psychological trauma caused by abuse. It is hard to understand why the access to such service would happen only through a subsidy when it is clear that abuse does not happen by choice.

The authors acknowledge the need to pursue legal action against predators, where possible, to hold them accountable for their crimes, as well as the need to launch independent probes to identify and address systemic failures within the organization, leading to disciplinary action against individuals who have enabled or covered up abuse.

Finally, they talk about the need to apologize and acknowledge the extent of the abuse. This is an aspect of the clergy sexual abuse that creates the most confusion among the bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and more so among the most active laypersons in that Church.

Gaslighting as policy

Roman Catholic hierarchs are unable to realize the extent of the damage done not only by the sexual predators, but also by the perpetual gaslighting coming from bureaucrats working at the dioceses, and from priests and laypersons way too committed to the idea that any criticism of their Church is an attack coming from “the Communists” or some other imaginary enemy.

It was notable, in that regard, how Argentine victims of clergy sexual abuse celebrated Pope Francis’s decision to laicize noted sexual predator Justo José Ilarraz.

The Pontiff’s decision comes, however after ten years of deaf fight from many Roman Catholics in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America to deny the victims’ knowledge about the abuse they suffered.

Ilarraz case was first accepted by Argentine authorities in 2012 (a file related to this case is available here as a PDF in Spanish), so when the spokesman of the Argentine Conference of Catholic Bishops published over his social media a statement acknowledging the Pope’s decision to laicize Ilarraz there was some sense of relief for the victims.

However, the attacks against at least 50 boys, ages 12 through 14, go all the way back to 1984, when they were students at the seminary of the diocese of Paraná. In that regard, the acknowledgment coming from Rome that Ilarraz was in fact a predator, comes with a 40-year delay.

If the message from the spokesman for the Argentine bishops does not appear before, it appears as an image after this paragraph.

Going back to the Foreign Missions report it must be stressed that, although the Foreign Missions Society as such has no parishes or other works in Latin America, and they do not actively recruit in Latin American countries, they do have Latin American partners.

The most notable are the so called Misioneros de Yarumal, a Roman Catholic order based in Colombia, that mimics to the dot the model of the Foreign Missions Society, and there are places in Southern Asia where both orders share pastoral tasks and predatory practices.

It is impossible for Los Ángeles Press to provide at this point a detailed account of the accusations brought against Colombian clergy affiliated to the Misioneros de Yarumal who work together with the Foreign Missions and other Roman Catholic orders in what used to be the French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and portions of Thailand), but there are such accusations.

The very model of these orders, bringing foreign clergy to territories designated as “of mission” facilitates the use of what in other installments of this series has been described as the “geographic solution” to clergy sexual abuse: moving clergy from one country to another, in the expectation that short-term therapies, already discredited by science, work the miracle on clergy either eager to prove themselves or unwilling to figure out other ways to make a living.

The abuse happening, for other reasons in some of the countries where the Foreign Missions, the Misioneros de Yarumal, and other Roman Catholic orders are active in Asia, facilitates this “solution”, that only moves a source of trouble from one place to another.

Also, it is necessary to stress the similarities between what the Foreign Missions report describes and what we know now about the abuse happening in First Nations territories in Canada, and the abuse perpetrated by Jesuits in Bolivia, as told in the story linked before and here.

A previous installment of this series on clergy sexual abuse offered some details about one of the cases from the Foreign Missions in the story linked below. One of the seven cases in that report is Aymeric de Salvert, a priest linked to the Foreign Missions order