(2022.4.29 Crux ローマ支局長 イネス・サン・マルティン)
ローマ発= 教皇フランシスコのお膝元、アルゼンチンの大司教区で、修道女たちのグループが大司教などを相手取り、司祭から性的差別による虐待を受けたとして提訴した。
アルゼンチンでは今年3月に、サルタ州オランの裁判所が、グスタボ・ザンチェッタ元司教に対し、2人の元神学生に継続的な性的虐待を犯したとして、4年6か月の禁固刑を言い渡している。
今回の提訴があったのは、同国のサルタ大司教区。教区長であるマリオ・カルグネッロ大司教に対して、跣足カルメル会の聖ベルナルド修道院所属の修道女たちによってなされた。
同修道院の弁護士団によると、カルグネッロ 大司教が同教区に着任した1999年以来、状況は悪化している。修道女たちは、自分たちが修道院で(性的も含めた)暴力を受けることなく生活できる権利がある、として今月初め、提訴に踏み切った。
訴えの相手は、カルグネッロ大司教とサント・ドミンゴ教区のマルティン・デ・エリザルデ引退司教とルシオ・アジャヤ神父の3人。サルタ大司教区は、この件について沈黙しており、カルグネッロ大司教も、メディアの会見要請に応じていない。
修道院の弁護士団は、訴状は特定の犯罪に焦点を当てていないが、「大司教自身あるいは他者の助けを借りた威圧的な要求と振る舞いで特徴付けられる、優越的な立場、高慢、”男らしさ”からもたらされる(大司教と修道女の間の)長年にわたる込み入った関係がある」と説明している。
一方で被告弁護団は、こうした訴えを全面否定し、教会法に定めた修道院が守るべき資質への不服従そのものである、と決めつけている。
(以下、英語原文)
Elizalde and Mother Maria Isabel Guiroy, a Benedictine, were sent by the Vatican for an apostolic visitation that had been requested by Cargnello following several clashes with the prioress, Fátima del Espíritu Santo, whose term has expired.
The Discalced Carmelites have two rules for their convents, one from 1990, and one from 1991. The first one follows the strict line from their founder, St. Therese of Avila, while the second was updated as suggested by the Second Vatican Council.
The complaint says that, during the first three interviews with the papal envoy, they suffered “verbal abuse,” and accuses Elizalde of having acted “in a bad way” and without “objectivity.”
Yet the complaint fails to mention Guiroy, which the defense argues was so that they could press for gender violence.
A transfer, prevented
The spark that lit the fire, however, was struck on April 7, when Carganello appeared in the convent accompanied by Spaniard Loyola Pinto y de Sancristóval, ecclesiastical judge of the archdiocese of Salta. They asked for Sister María Magdalena to be authorized to go to the archdiocesan offices to meet with the prelate and a witness with the purpose of analyzing the transfer of the sister to a convent of Mendoza.
Argentina’s daily La Nacion reconstructs that, according to the ecclesiastical judicial records, Cargnello had received two letters during the summer in which the nun asked him to facilitate her transfer to a cloister near her family and under the less stringent 1991 rules.
But the prioress did not authorize this departure, arguing that Maria Magdalena was not well: she said that, in any case, the interview should take place in the convent so as not to break the rule of enclosure.
Three days later, the archbishop phoned the convent, announcing that, together with Elizalde, they would be going to the convent April 11. On this date, the prioress refused to receive them, saying that she was ill. The following day, the 18 nuns, including the sister who asked to return to her home state, presented the allegation against both bishops.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock every year to Bosnia-Herzegovina to go to Medjugorje, a small town where the Virgin Mary has allegedly been appearing to a group of six visionaries for decades. Though the Vatican seems to be shifting to a more positive attitude towards this pilgrimage site, the phenomenon continues to be unrecognized by the Church.
The situation in Salta is relatively new compared to Medjugorje, but is not dissimilar. In Argentina’s case, the claim is that the Virgin, under the title of the “Immaculate Mother of the Divine Eucharistic Heart of Christ,” has been appearing to Maria Livia Galliano de Obeid, known to friends and foes as “Maria Livia.”
Every Saturday, with the exception of two months during the summer, Maria Livia leads a “prayer of intercession” at the top of a hill, which is considered a “shrine.” There’s a small chapel at the top of the hill, where the image of the Virgin sits at the center, and where pilgrims have left thousands of rosaries.
Since the mid-1990s, the nuns have maintained a close relationship with Maria Livia Galliano and her family and with the devotion to the “Madonna del Cerro.” They are founding members of the two institutions that administer and organize the activities related to it, and they are named in the deed of the land where the apparitions allegedly happen, which was donated to Galliano by the then-owner.
The alleged apparitions began just as Cargnello was arriving in Salta. The archdiocese has criticized the nuns for not complying with the charism of the Carmelites and for associating themselves so closely with a visionary whose claims have not been accepted by the Vatican.
The archdiocese argues that the alleged visionary acts as if she were the superior and that the nuns believe absolutely everything Galliano says, without question.
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The defense’s denial
Though the two bishops and the priest named in the complaint have remained silent, the communications office of the archdiocese of Salta released a statement on Wednesday, saying that the Vatican’s embassy to Argentina had informed both the archbishop and the Carmelite sisters of the decree of completition of the apostolic visitation.
Dated March 30, the decree says that the visit “was carried out in an adequate, correct and competent manner, and that the Visitators exhaustively fulfilled the assignment given to them.”
The statement also shares the indications issued by the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The congregation reminded the nuns that even though they enjoy autonomy, they are still “under the supervision of the diocesan bishop whose authority and action are established by law.” They are also asked not to get involved in apostolic activities such as the ones arising from the alleged Marian apparition until “the local bishop or the competent Congregation of the Apostolic See discern its veracity and authorize the practices of worship in this context.”
After reminding them that their religious community “is bound to the strict observance” of the norms, including monastic enclosure, an objection is raised against the involvement of the monastery in an initiative that goes “against the will of the bishop and the priests of the diocese, leading to a division of the local Church community and to conflicts.”
“The monastery, allowing the ‘visionary’, Mrs. Maria Livia Galiano de Obeid, to live in its own premises and allocating some spaces for pilgrims near this context, is clearly fully involved in this work, against the will of the local Church,” the Vatican’s decree warns.
“It is necessary to strongly point out that the community of the Discalced Carmelites of Salta must live fully the Carmelite charism, not a work that consequently leads to situations of tension,” says the decree. “For this reason, it is also recommended a renewed formation in the spirit of the Rule and according to the Carmelite tradition, observing its own tradition of monastic life. In dialogue with the local bishop, a stable form of regular meetings should be instituted, which would serve to confront problematic situations in a continuous way.”
The archbishop is expected to testify in the case on May 3.
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