A Jamaican, Denise Buchanan, has accused an unnamed Catholic priest of sexual abuse.
She told AFP that she was 17 when she was raped by a seminarian identified as Brother Paul. She said he continued to abuse her even after he had been ordained a priest.
“I got pregnant and he arranged a clandestine abortion,” Buchanan told AFP in tears 40 years after the ordeal.
She said the Catholic Church has offered her nothing but their “prayers”.
Buchanan, now 57, is a leading member of a new international organisation, Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA), which is bringing together victims in Rome this week to pressure Pope Francis to take a tougher line on child abuse by clerics.
She was living in Kingston when her sister introduced her and her family to Paul, a theology student and a member of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ.
“Brother Paul would talk at length with my father, and my mother would invite him to stay for dinner.
“He told me he was very attracted to me. I felt awkward. He said that they (the Church) made rules that he didn’t agree with, and he did what he needed to do to do the work of the Church.
“He pressed his lips on my lips, inserted his tongue… His hands were touching my legs and breasts. I pulled away and told him to take me home,” she said.
Buchanan said the clergyman invited her into the rectory one day, took her to his bedroom and raped her. She said that few days later after making her drink some wine, he assaulted her again.
She said she discovered she was pregnant several weeks later before Paul organised an illegal abortion for her.
Buchanan added that after Paul was ordained he still came by her university residence at least once a week for sex.
“He told me he loved me and I was his girl. I obeyed like a robot. I didn’t care much about anything at this point,” she said.
She said she got pregnant again at 21, and had another backroom abortion.
She has been unable to have children since then. Buchanan moved to Canada at age 25 for her studies, and then to Los Angeles, where she now teaches at a university and works as a psychiatric neurologist.
She married in Canada, but divorced two years later.
“I did not resolve the anger and fear I had of the relationship with Father Paul. I have carried this guilt and shame all my life and I have had many decades of therapy for depression,” she said.
The psychiatric neurologist has struggled in vain for years for the Church to officially recognise her as a victim. She has even written to the pope to help her get justice.
