In the context of International Women’s Day, it is necessary to turn our gaze not only toward the external injustices that affect women, but also toward the interior of the Church.
In Mexico, the situation of nuns and consecrated women in the Catholic Church also has a little-explored problem that has not been definitively addressed: sexual and power abuses perpetuated in a context of impunity and institutional silence against nuns who, in silence, carry a heavy burden that they only endure thanks to faith and the conviction that it is a cross.
And it is that, in some cases, complaints have been filed by former nuns against priests and superiors that may reveal the tip of the iceberg of how, within the Church, the preservation of the image is prioritized over justice, leaving the victims in a limbo of pain and oblivion.
A reference is the testimony of three former nuns: Flor Sánchez, Ericka Cansino, and Adriana Maza, who in 2022 accused the former priest Salvador Valadez Fuentes, founder of the congregation Discípulas de Jesús Buen Pastor, of sexual and power abuses. Adriana Maza recounted inappropriate touches and invitations from her 18 years at the Seminario Diocesano de Santa María de Guadalupe, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. Ericka Cansino described attempts at kisses and touches in 1992, while Flor Sánchez denounced spiritual manipulation and abuse of conscience. Not only was the priest pointed out; the superior Silvia López Pérez was accused of similar abuses and cover-ups, with knowledge of the facts for two decades. Despite the expulsion from the clerical state of Valadez in February 2022, impunity persisted, idealized as the «founding father.»
The total absence of official data and figures on abuses against women religious in Mexico implies the possible non-existence of systematic diocesan records that quantify these crimes, which prevents dimensioning the magnitude of the phenomenon. Even worse, there is a lack of comprehensive care protocols for victims. Instead of transparent mechanisms for reporting, investigation, and reparation, the culture of secrecy prevails, «avoiding scandal» becomes a mantra. In 2021, when victims presented their complaint to the archbishop of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the response was a call for silence and denial of any reparation. This dynamic not only revictimizes those affected but perpetuates a cycle of asymmetric power where consecrated women, sworn to obedience, are exposed to the arbitrariness of superiors and clerics.
For contrast, the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious and Religious Women (CLAR) presented in 2022 an investigation based on an anonymous survey of 1,417 nuns from 23 countries, including 429 from Mexico. The findings reveal that abuses are not limited to male clerics: 55.2% of respondents experienced power abuse, with superiors as the main perpetrators (51.9%), followed by presbyters (34.2%) and formators (23.1%). In sexual abuses, 19.8% reported victimization, with harassment by priests (14.3%), but also by laypeople (9.7%) and other nuns (8%). Spiritual abuse affects 30%, again with superiors at the forefront (25.5%).
These data, although not systematic and with limitations due to geographical variability, highlight that the problem involves not only men in positions of authority, but also women who reproduce patterns of domination. In Mexico, with the largest representation in the survey, it suggests an underlying reality that transcends the structures of each of the dioceses.
The criticism is unavoidable: the Catholic Church, which proclaims the inherent dignity of every person created in the image of God, fails to apply it internally. The lack of standardized protocols and the prioritization of the «greater good» of the institution over the victims contradict the Gospel of justice and mercy.
Women’s Day should not be reduced to empty proclamations and repetitive with prefabricated slogans of complaints toward the outside, but rather an introspection must be promoted, reclaiming dignity and illuminating the shadows in the cloister with the light of justice when, perhaps, dozens of women within the Church carry a cross that, in silence, they must endure because it is only the best solution.