Catholic Church can't ignore sexual victimization of nuns

In 1996, researchers at St. Louis University conducted a study of nuns in the United States who had suffered some form of sexual trauma and they concluded that the number of victims topped 34,000 or 40 percent.
The study was not made public, but its findings were published in two religious research journals, Review for Religious and Review of Religious Research, in the spring and winter of 1998. Both are well-respected publications of limited circulation and were selected by the sponsors to get the information to the right people.
It can be presumed that the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States was an intended target for the information. Yet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the group was unaware of the St. Louis University study.
How is that possible? While it is true that the mainstream media did not break the story -- the orders of Catholic nuns that partially paid for the survey did not want to sensationalize the results -- the two research journals had all the details. Did no one at the offices of the Conference of Bishops have any knowledge of what was reported?
Skepticism abounds in light of the controversy that has shaken the foundation of the church over the sexual abuse of children by priests. Evidence that some bishops sought to protect abusive priests by reassigning them to other parishes has forced the church's elders to explain their actions.
Lawsuits
As the numerous lawsuits have shown, such reassignment did not always remove the criminal clergy from contact with children, which meant that often times the abusive practices continued. As an increasing number of abused Catholics and former Catholics stepped forward to tell their stories, the church found itself not only having to defend against lawsuits, but to assure the faithful that covering up such behavior was a thing of the past.
But now, with the denial of any knowledge of nuns being sexually victimized, the idea persists that the see-no-evil attitude may have caused the Conference of Catholic Bishops to either ignore the findings or to sweep them under the rug.
Thus the question: What does the church intend to do about the study and its conclusions, detailed recently in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch? The newspaper obtained a copy of the study and in a subsequent story quoted the study's co-author, John T. Chibnall, a research psychologist and associate professor at St. Louis University as saying, "These women have been the stalwarts of the church for centuries, and a significant percentage of them have been victimized as a result of the structure of the very institution to which they have dedicated their lives."
The study reveals that some of the sexual abuse, exploitation or harassment has come at the hands of priests and other nuns.
The Catholic Church in America has a responsibility to address this issue with the same intensity it has lately displayed in dealing with priests who have sexually abused children. There must a commitment to bring out the whole truth about the nuns who have been sexually victimized. The story is now part of the public record and the U.S. Conference of Bishops can no longer feign ignorance. They must launch a thorough, independent investigation -- now.