At a press conference of the Catholic relief agency missio Aachen on Friday, Zollner said that in many countries today – unlike ten years ago – the topic can be talked openly. Missio has now contributed to the fact that today not only about child protection, but also about the protection of women in spiritual communities.
Over the past five years (2020 to 2025), the charity has supported training, empowering and safeguarding of religious women.
After intensive project work, missio is now seeing an increased awareness of the topic of sexual abuse of religious women, better language skills about this topic, help for those affected and measures for prevention.
Together with partner organisations, numerous projects were carried out in Africa, Asia and Oceania. missio funded them with around 17.5 million euros.
Specifically, missio President Dirk Bingener stated that the relief agency had funded 534 training projects in the past five years, 107 of which were specifically for religious women. This resulted in around 80,000 religious women and novices who were supported in living independently, self-determined and strong.
This indirectly reduces the risk of violence. 35 projects in the narrower area of safeguarding would have the goal of building an infrastructure with which to support women in violence. It is also about building prevention and networking.
This would include international network meetings and the financial support of eight doctoral students from Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Zollner reported that a religious woman had already raised the issue of sexual abuse of religious women in 2000 – at that time without consequences. Fortunately, this is different today. Even Pope Francis publicly addressed it in 2018.
Sister Mary Lembo reports from Africa that ten years ago it was not yet possible to talk about sexual abuse of religious women. “People have assumed that abuse did not exist in Africa, but only in Europe and other places.”
That has changed.
"People today can talk openly about abuse suffered. They are aware that safeguarding training is needed.”
Training and networking meetings with participants from all continents would have helped very much in understanding abuse as a global problem. Now uniform procedures and codes of conduct for dealing with this violence would have to be made binding.
Sustainable mentality change needed
There are still orders today that maintain a subservient religious ideal, and conceal abuse. In such communities, sisters who talk about their abuse would have great difficulties. In many cultures, sexual violence against women is also more or less accepted.
As the Indian sister Rushila Rebello said, Christian religious women in Muslim countries in the social hierarchy were so far below that abuse of religious women there would not be regarded as a problem.
Zollner said it needed a shift in mentality and culture that would not happen "from one day to the next." So missio will continue to invest in awareness-creating measures, explained the Safeguarding commissioner Johanna Streit.
There is a need for more contact points for those affected and training institutions on site.
Missio wants to contribute to establishing culturally sensitive and favorable training opportunities in the various language groups and to building and expanding networks.
Bingener emphasized: "The topic needs consistency and time". This mixture seems unusual.
But it is necessary to initiate processes and take people with them. He stressed the danger of shipping remains: "There are always new generations of religious women. The door has opened, but there are also doors shut again."
So it will continue to be important to pursue the projects with consistency and time. Missio must continue to promote them until they can stand on their own feet.