Il velo del silenzio. Abusi, violenze, frustrazioni nella vita religiosa femminile by Salvatore Cernuzio

Abstract

Reviewed by: Il velo del silenzio. Abusi, violenze, frustrazioni nella vita religiosa femminile by Salvatore Cernuzio Claudia Giampietro, JCL Il velo del silenzio. Abusi, violenze, frustrazioni nella vita religiosa femminile. By Salvatore Cernuzio. Edizioni San Paolo, 2021. Pp. 208. €20. A veil of silence lies on the reality of abuse that torments many women who embrace the path of religious life. Superiors general, novice mistresses, treasurers, and other members of female religious communities of both apostolic [End Page 208] and contemplative life are described as thirsty for power and perpetrators of unbearable discriminations in the eleven short stories anonymously told to journalist Salvatore Cernuzio by current and former religious sisters. They come from different countries, sometimes transferred to places very far from their homeland to join an international novitiate. Not even an unshakeable ability to adjust to challenges would be enough to deal with the intolerable conditions recounted, in which a life of spiritual perfection, total submission to authority, and denial of fundamental freedoms seems to be the wished-for goal by their major superiors who lost the vision and understanding of the radical following of Christ. The stories collected by C., an Italian reporter who works for the Holy See's media office, leave one astonished in reading about the incredible pain experienced by women who are defined as "departed" (72) because of their decision to leave their congregations to receive care and assistance once they fall prey to burnout and psychiatric disorders. Such decisions are harshly judged by their superiors and sometimes justified with a distorted interpretation of biblical passages and criticism of the younger generations who, in their words, would not be generous enough to follow God with an undivided heart. Many of the women C. interviews find themselves having to choose between being forced "to remain in a place that they do not see any more as ideal to seek God's will" (154) or enter into a kind of non-existence outside the institute, where they have few resources to help themselves. It is easy to imagine the "departed" members as a new category of souls lingering in Dante's Limbo, a place that materializes on this earth whenever women who choose to leave a given institute are labeled as lost for the rest of their lives, or unworthy of being listened to because they could only be capable of expressing anger and desire for vengeance. The sad reality is that often religious institutes do not plan any support measures for the members who leave and who therefore find themselves without family or friends to rely on for a safe shelter. In some cases, they are told to gather their belongings overnight and leave without any money or the possibility to have further contact with people with whom they shared a considerable part of their life journey (38). There are a few structures that provide former religious sisters and nuns with the help needed. This is the case of the Chaire Gynai (in English "Welcome, woman") integration project in Rome, managed by the Scalabrinian Sisters to welcome women in conditions of fragility and of any status, age, or origin (45). In the eyes of their major superiors, hesitation, mental issues, difficulty in bending one's will to all-powerful leaders represent dead ends after years of impeccable commitment and self-giving (81). While evaluating the causes of such abuse, Italian psychiatrist and psychotherapist Prof. Tonino Cantelmi [End Page 209] affirms: "In female congregations the incapacity of authentic integration is very frequent, and above all it is possible to identify a clamorous short-sightedness of superiors general in handling the talents of sisters or nuns" (171–72). C.'s narratives indicate there are institutes that do not consider the diversity of talents of their members, and in this way hinder a new flourishing of the institutes. This is an evil from both an individual and collective perspective. There is a common frustration among religious women forced to satisfy senseless demands imposed by a tunnel-visioned leadership. For those who do not follow this unspoken rule by manifesting their skills and desire to improve them for the sake of the institute, the consequence is being marginalized or...