From
Tineke Ferwerda’s “Sister Philothea: Relationships between Women and Roman
Catholic Priests” (1989; translated 1993) (p. 137; paragraph breaks added for
clarity):
I was
proud of aspiring to an authentic monastic community. Of being friendly with the superior, who had
my special affection, as he was my father and mother at the same time. He always kissed me on my mouth. I didn’t like these wet kisses and kept my
mouth shut. He was always
disconcertingly fond of me, really like the brother on watch..., though, small
as I then was, I found something strange about this brother. That certainly wasn’t the case with this
prior. I trusted him completely.
Once in
the very first year he asked me whether I knew where children came from. I knew that and could tell him in
detail. And I could tell a good story,
though my story was far from complete.
Especially the role of the father was not yet completely clear to
me. He filled in the missing details in
such a natural and disarming way that none of this seemed particularly strange
to me.
Later I
told him when I had had my first “wet dream” and had thus become a man,
something that we both celebrated with a glass of sherry.
I also
talked to him about my sin of unchastity with a girl. He then looked very serious and concerned and
wanted to know all the details. I told
him that at home at my suggestion I had once watched a girl-friend from
next-door making a puddle before my amazed eyes and I had looked at her in an
extremely interested way. He burst out
laughing, slapped me on the shoulder, and said disarmingly, “But that’s not
unchastity, boy! Our dear Lord made
girls and boys that way.”
When I
asked him what unchastity really was he gave me vivid examples of it: rape and
incest, no more.
. . .
No comments:
Post a Comment