Argentinian judge recognizes years of sexual abuse suffered by 20 nuns in groundbreaking ruling

BUNEOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge ruled Friday that 20 cloistered nuns suffered abuse for more than two decades at the hands of high-ranking clergy in the country’s conservative north, and ordered the archbishop and Church officials accused to face prison sentences. psychological treatment and training on gender discrimination.

The ruling in Pope Francis’ country highlighted long-standing abuses against nuns by priests and bishops in the Catholic Church.

Although long overshadowed by other ecclesial scandals, such abuses in religious life are increasingly publicized and denounced, as nuns feel emboldened by the #MeToo movement, which has a corollary in the Church, #NunsToo .

“I conclude and affirm that nuns have suffered acts of gender-based violence on religious, physical, psychological and economic levels for more than 20 years,” Judge Carolina Cáceres said in the judgment delivered in Salta, northwest of Argentina.

She also ordered that the verdict be transmitted to Francis.

The four accused clergy have denied committing violence. The archbishop’s lawyer, Eduardo Romani, dismissed Friday’s ruling as baseless and vowed to appeal. Nonetheless, he said, the archbishop would comply with the order to receive anti-discrimination treatment and training through a local NGO “whether or not he agrees with its basis.”

The nuns’ lawyer hailed the verdict as unprecedented in Argentina, as it recognizes the plight of the plaintiffs and the deeper problem of gender discrimination.

“It breaks the status quo because it targets a person with great power,” said lawyer José Viola.

In recent years, several notable cases have emerged involving nuns, lay people or consecrated women denouncing spiritual, psychological, physical or sexual abuse at the hands of formerly exalted priests.

But the complaints largely fell on deaf ears in the Vatican and in Argentina’s rigid all-male hierarchy at the local level, apparently prompting Salta’s nuns to seek redress through the secular justice system. A similar dynamic occurred when the clergy child abuse scandal first broke decades ago and victims turned to the courts due to inaction by church authorities.

The 20 nuns of the solitary order of Discalced Carmelites of the San Bernardo monastery – dedicated to solitude, silence and daily contemplative prayer – presented their case in 2022, sending shockwaves through conservative Salta.

Their complaints included a range of mistreatment, including verbal insults, threats, humiliation and physical, but not sexual, attacks.

Nuns describe Archbishop Mario Cargnello as grabbing, slapping and shaking women. At one point, they said, Cargnello pressed a nun’s lips to silence her. At another point, he lunged at a nun, hitting her as he struggled to wrestle a camera from her hands. They also accused Cargello of borrowing money from the nuns without paying them back.

Cáceres, the judge, described these cases as “physical and psychological gender violence.”

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Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.