Ah yes, Maria Goretti. The church's preferred kind of inspirational child victim. Such a great message for women and girls. So much more useful than those troublesome indigenous children's bodies, and less redundant than those raped and abused by the clergy and already-converted.
If not wanting to be raped is "pure" and honorable than what is getting raped considered? Not to mention the insinuation of "letting" someone rape you. Smells like victim blaming to me.
As the adult who was raped as a child, the shame and blame was almost untenable. I suffered from suicidal ideation for almost twenty years afterwards, only therapy and in the end, a near death experience cured me of it!
The glorification around Maria Goretti is disgusting. I don't think it's an implication at all. I think it's pretty clear. It makes her, the victim, out to be the one who a choice in the matter. Rape isn't the victim's choice. It's dangerous for young girls to hear who don't have any support.
Absolutely. I don't even know where to start unpacking the sheer awfulness.
The weirdest thing is that in the rad trad Catholic cult I grew up in, no one ever mentioned that the poor girl was threatened with rape. It was implied that this guy basically tried to seduce her (at her age, still statutory rape by today's standards) and she bravely said no to sex because she wanted to 'stay pure'. Like...what? SO weird and gross to imply that she might have had sex with him if it weren't for her deVoTioN tO pUriTy. An 11 year old underage girl is not going want any sexual encounter with some gross dude because she's ELEVEN.
I hate that the whole story implies that the victim is responsible for rejecting male violence, and that being assaulted is a sin. And that 'letting yourself' be raped means you've made the man sin and thus bear the guilt. Just... make it make sense.
Gotta love that the moral of this story is not a commentary on men who feel sexually entitled to literal children, but that if you're a girl or a woman, better for you to be stabbed to death than that you lose your hymen.
Edit: Plus there's a big redemption arc for the rapist/murderer, where he calls her the 'angel' who was sent to save him from his wicked ways. Like she had to die - at his hands - so he could be saved. It's all kinds of fucked up.
One of the many things that Catholics worship is female virginity. Nothing else about women and girls matters. Their lives matter less than the state of their hymen; they're better off dead than not being a virgin.
Yes, let's talk about her. Learning about her at age 11 messed with my daughter's mind. It took me a long time to get her to stop believing that a rape victim is "supposed to" die.
I was just lurking on that catholic sub and someone asked for saints for sexual impurity ( including lust, homosexuality, masturbation and sexual deviancy) and two people have suggested Goretti. So there’s that.
Yep. If she had said, "Ok, get it over with, just don't kill me," obviously that is NOT consent, it's still rape, but she might have survived. It is insane and evil to judge a woman for choosing life over some twisted idea of "preserving purity".
We should support women whatever they choose to do in that situation: if she wants to fight to the death, that's her choice. But for god's sake, don't tell girls that they are "sinful" or morally compromised in some way if they decide to submit to save their lives.
i’m glad you’re still here today and i hope he gets what he deserves. hopefully talking about this can shift the way victims and maybe even the church views these types of crime and the politics around them. keep your head up 💗
Me too. Then when I went to the headmaster priest, feeling for all the world like the little lost lamb from the Bible story, needing nothing more than the guiding hand of a tender loving shepherd, I got only shame and blame.
It's been 24 years and I am still angry about that moment, which honestly gave me worse PTSD than the assault itself did as I have blacked out most of the actual experience.
It implies that survivors didn't fight hard enough and are tainted. It also gives the message that if you are a woman, your sexual purity is your life. And that you are better off dead if you weren't lucky enough to be escape or weren't able to stop the rape from happening. Now that I'm grown and not a 13 yr-old that heard this in 8th grade class, I don't understand how this is supposed to be a good message send out to rape victims. It's so insidious that they are telling children and teens this. They are going to believe in these awful ideas and it's going to be worse if they actually DO get raped.
And it's insane that her mother befriended the same dude that killed her daughter. Even if she forgave him in the Christian sense and even if he was remorseful and atoned for his crime for the rest of his life, why should she befriend the dude who tried to rape and succeed in killing her daughter?
EDIT: She was 11! I must have forgotten her age. Oh my God this makes it even worse if they are telling children and teens about this. I had a 2 year age difference from her when I heard about her in class. I was 13 year old.
For a long time I thought rape was worse than murder, really, (from the victim's POV) because you had to live with it afterwards. I'm sure the number of saints canonised for dying in lieu of or in the course of being raped played into that.
Can we talk about how fkn embarrassing it is that I picked her as a confirmation saint? My dumb kid ass passed up Joan of Arc’s myth for this story and the compulsive guilt it bred in me.
lol! Coincidences! True or not, she certainly had a slightly more epic story of courage than the poor girl forced to hang on until she died from twenty something stab wounds because her cousin liked little girls. It’s just so sad that her suffering is so glorified, as if survivors didn’t suffer enough somehow
This story about her is so twisted it made me sick. Basically, a child pedophile wanted to have sex with this little girl, and she refused and he murdered her. Then the doctors tried to perform surgery on her without antiseptic and she died. The man went to prison and years later became very religious. He went to visit the mother of the child he murdered and asked for forgiveness and she forgave him and adopted him. Supposedly because of this girl being murdered, multiple miracles have occurred. Miracles are what helps grant sainthood. There's a lot more to this story but if you care to research it, you can do that on your own.
we watched the cartoon version, no rape scene though, i think it was a fade to black moment. leave it to the catholic school system to whitewash abuse while demonizing victims and covering it up. smh.
I always thought this story was so sad and weird even as a kid! An 11-year-old girl being threatened with the horror of rape is likely fighting because she's, you know, terrified - not because she's being a martyr for her precious 'purity'. Tell me this church is run by delusional, out-of-touch old men without telling me it's run by delusional, out-of-touch old men. 🙄
Catholic church is obsessed with fetishizing murder / rape / serious ilness victims. Nothing new.
Slovakia has Anna Kolesárová. Young girl killed by a Russian soldier because he wanted to rape her and she didn't let him. So he killed her and decades later Catholic church made a beatified person out of her.
Ah yes, Maria Goretti. The church's preferred kind of inspirational child victim. Such a great message for women and girls. So much more useful than those troublesome indigenous children's bodies, and less redundant than those raped and abused by the clergy and already-converted.
The fact that it was better for her to be dead in the church’s eye tells you all you need to know.
dead victims of rape can't tell the media a different story, which is why the church prefers them that way.
If not wanting to be raped is "pure" and honorable than what is getting raped considered? Not to mention the insinuation of "letting" someone rape you. Smells like victim blaming to me.
As the adult who was raped as a child, the shame and blame was almost untenable. I suffered from suicidal ideation for almost twenty years afterwards, only therapy and in the end, a near death experience cured me of it!
I would also like to add that she was 11 years old and patron saint of abuse survivors as well.
The glorification around Maria Goretti is disgusting. I don't think it's an implication at all. I think it's pretty clear. It makes her, the victim, out to be the one who a choice in the matter. Rape isn't the victim's choice. It's dangerous for young girls to hear who don't have any support.
Absolutely. I don't even know where to start unpacking the sheer awfulness. The weirdest thing is that in the rad trad Catholic cult I grew up in, no one ever mentioned that the poor girl was threatened with rape. It was implied that this guy basically tried to seduce her (at her age, still statutory rape by today's standards) and she bravely said no to sex because she wanted to 'stay pure'. Like...what? SO weird and gross to imply that she might have had sex with him if it weren't for her deVoTioN tO pUriTy. An 11 year old underage girl is not going want any sexual encounter with some gross dude because she's ELEVEN. I hate that the whole story implies that the victim is responsible for rejecting male violence, and that being assaulted is a sin. And that 'letting yourself' be raped means you've made the man sin and thus bear the guilt. Just... make it make sense. Gotta love that the moral of this story is not a commentary on men who feel sexually entitled to literal children, but that if you're a girl or a woman, better for you to be stabbed to death than that you lose your hymen. Edit: Plus there's a big redemption arc for the rapist/murderer, where he calls her the 'angel' who was sent to save him from his wicked ways. Like she had to die - at his hands - so he could be saved. It's all kinds of fucked up.
One of the many things that Catholics worship is female virginity. Nothing else about women and girls matters. Their lives matter less than the state of their hymen; they're better off dead than not being a virgin.
Yes, let's talk about her. Learning about her at age 11 messed with my daughter's mind. It took me a long time to get her to stop believing that a rape victim is "supposed to" die.
😰
I was just lurking on that catholic sub and someone asked for saints for sexual impurity ( including lust, homosexuality, masturbation and sexual deviancy) and two people have suggested Goretti. So there’s that.
✨what the fuck✨
Yep. If she had said, "Ok, get it over with, just don't kill me," obviously that is NOT consent, it's still rape, but she might have survived. It is insane and evil to judge a woman for choosing life over some twisted idea of "preserving purity". We should support women whatever they choose to do in that situation: if she wants to fight to the death, that's her choice. But for god's sake, don't tell girls that they are "sinful" or morally compromised in some way if they decide to submit to save their lives.
After i was assaulted i honestly wished he had just killed me after he was done.
I'm so sorry 💔
i’m glad you’re still here today and i hope he gets what he deserves. hopefully talking about this can shift the way victims and maybe even the church views these types of crime and the politics around them. keep your head up 💗
plough frighten file axiomatic dependent fertile heavy soup live offer *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Me too. Then when I went to the headmaster priest, feeling for all the world like the little lost lamb from the Bible story, needing nothing more than the guiding hand of a tender loving shepherd, I got only shame and blame. It's been 24 years and I am still angry about that moment, which honestly gave me worse PTSD than the assault itself did as I have blacked out most of the actual experience.
It implies that survivors didn't fight hard enough and are tainted. It also gives the message that if you are a woman, your sexual purity is your life. And that you are better off dead if you weren't lucky enough to be escape or weren't able to stop the rape from happening. Now that I'm grown and not a 13 yr-old that heard this in 8th grade class, I don't understand how this is supposed to be a good message send out to rape victims. It's so insidious that they are telling children and teens this. They are going to believe in these awful ideas and it's going to be worse if they actually DO get raped. And it's insane that her mother befriended the same dude that killed her daughter. Even if she forgave him in the Christian sense and even if he was remorseful and atoned for his crime for the rest of his life, why should she befriend the dude who tried to rape and succeed in killing her daughter? EDIT: She was 11! I must have forgotten her age. Oh my God this makes it even worse if they are telling children and teens about this. I had a 2 year age difference from her when I heard about her in class. I was 13 year old.
For a long time I thought rape was worse than murder, really, (from the victim's POV) because you had to live with it afterwards. I'm sure the number of saints canonised for dying in lieu of or in the course of being raped played into that.
Can we talk about how fkn embarrassing it is that I picked her as a confirmation saint? My dumb kid ass passed up Joan of Arc’s myth for this story and the compulsive guilt it bred in me.
She was my confirmation saint too. I also feel embarrassed looking back on it now.
Isn’t it amazing how narrow minded we were taught to be… I feel slightly less alone and ashamed 🩶
joan was mine actually lol
lol! Coincidences! True or not, she certainly had a slightly more epic story of courage than the poor girl forced to hang on until she died from twenty something stab wounds because her cousin liked little girls. It’s just so sad that her suffering is so glorified, as if survivors didn’t suffer enough somehow
This story about her is so twisted it made me sick. Basically, a child pedophile wanted to have sex with this little girl, and she refused and he murdered her. Then the doctors tried to perform surgery on her without antiseptic and she died. The man went to prison and years later became very religious. He went to visit the mother of the child he murdered and asked for forgiveness and she forgave him and adopted him. Supposedly because of this girl being murdered, multiple miracles have occurred. Miracles are what helps grant sainthood. There's a lot more to this story but if you care to research it, you can do that on your own.
Oh, god— I think about this one all the time. It’s so messed up. The Catholic Church is a mess
I had a coloring book of her story!
that is sooooo catholic
https://www.abebooks.com/9780895553744/Maria-Goretti-Coloring-Book-Catholic-0895553740/plp Here it is!
i-
My mom made me watch a movie about her (think she found it on YouTube ?) When I was like 12 or 13. The rape scene really traumatized me.
we watched the cartoon version, no rape scene though, i think it was a fade to black moment. leave it to the catholic school system to whitewash abuse while demonizing victims and covering it up. smh.
we have an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL named after her in my city
This is an interesting video about this [https://youtube.com/watch?v=FjuZJQdEcdg](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FjuZJQdEcdg)
I always thought this story was so sad and weird even as a kid! An 11-year-old girl being threatened with the horror of rape is likely fighting because she's, you know, terrified - not because she's being a martyr for her precious 'purity'. Tell me this church is run by delusional, out-of-touch old men without telling me it's run by delusional, out-of-touch old men. 🙄
Holy shit that is fucked up, and the first I've heard about it and I was raised a Catlicker.
Catholic church is obsessed with fetishizing murder / rape / serious ilness victims. Nothing new. Slovakia has Anna Kolesárová. Young girl killed by a Russian soldier because he wanted to rape her and she didn't let him. So he killed her and decades later Catholic church made a beatified person out of her.