Awakened Woman e-magazine
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facing the issues / by Diane Rae Schulz

Nun discovers dirty linen in the Bishop's closet

The diocese of Northern California has become a hot spot for the Catholic Church this year, since Sister Jane Kelly, a 69 year old nun, blew the whistle on the secret life of the Catholic Church's all male hierarchy. Director of religious education at St. Mary of the Angels in Ukiah, California, she went public with the information that the Diocese had not responded to her reports of thievery committed by a young priest, Hume Salas. The resulting investigation revealed that the Bishop had covered up the theft in exchange for certain sexual favors...

That Sister Kelly has to be one courageous woman! To take on the "old boy's club" mentality of a 1,600 year old institution, firmly and completely under the control of men! Having devoted her entire adult life to the service of God as she understands it, she said simply, "Evil survives because good people don't speak out. Like anything that is painful, like lancing a boil, once you get all that poison out, we can start healing."

Church doctrines deny priests the pleasure of sex and acquisition of wealth. Yet they are human beings and cannot always obey these stark rules. Unfortunately their response to their dilemma is not always vaunted transcendence of these "sinful" urges, but rather, the corruption of them. Sex becomes a preoccupation that distorts the natural urges, which become compelled to seek highly inappropriate expression with children and young women and men. Often, as in the Ziemann case, pay-off money and spin control become part of the sordid, twisted behavior that this Ultimate Patriarchal Institution propagates.

Ziemann resigned last July after Rev. Jorge Hume Salas accused him of coercing him into their two-year sexual relationship, naming him in a lawsuit. Ongoing articles in the Northern California press, principally the daily Press Democrat, reveal that during his seven year administration, Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, (who was, incidentally, appointed directly by the Pope), had incurred $2 million of personal debt while allowing the diocese to lose track of another $14 million of funds belonging to the parishes.

Where did the money go? Turns out Bishop Ziemann spent more than a quarter of it (half a million dollars from his personal discretionary fund) over five years for therapy and financial assistance for parishioners who claimed they were sexually abused by priests, records of the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa show. The bishop's payments began when the diocese became engulfed in scandals involving charges of abuse of minors by five North Coast priests. Needless to say, some hush money could conceivably have been involved here!

Inspired by Sister Kelly, female parishioners have begun to voice concern over other issues regarding traditional church policies. Tommie Kishbaugh, an 81 year old parishioner, was quoted in the press as explaining that "she was marching to protest what she called the hypocrisy of the church's stand on homosexuality and its exclusion of women. She also noted that many of the misconduct problems that contributed to the church's financial crisis would undoubtedly be reduced if the church would simply change its stand on gays, allow priests to marry, and ordain women as priests. (11/23/99)

Sister Kelly has voiced the same opinions: "We must not pass over the deep theological questions that have come out of this." (12/6/99)

For a nun to speak out against the Church hierarchy is remarkable, if not unprecedented; it has liberated well-behaved Catholic women, renowned for their habit of silence, to speak out against this long-standing abuse of power by priests. The church has historically claimed that its unique power proceeds from Jesus Christ's pronouncement in the Bible that he would build his church on the "rock" of St. Peter. But it is now obvious to parishioners that divine power has not been what sustains the institution.

The church is a wealthy enterprise, one of the wealthiest businesses in the world. It owns a vast amount of property world-wide and controls enormous amounts of capital. It is the only world religion recognized as an independent government by the United Nations. But what does its influence produce? Obstruction of family planning, safe abortion, and the condom education aimed at stopping the ferocious spread of HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

The cardinal sins of this vast and pompous edifice have long been buried under reams of self-righteous platitudes. It's certainly time that this hypocrisy made the headlines of the morning paper. As women, we may be justly proud that it was a woman who dared to break the news. And a nun at that.

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