Termonbacca nuns 'nearly psychotic'; abuse survivor tells of 'screams of despair'

Nuns who ran a hell hole children’s home in Northern Ireland were nearly psychotic, a former resident said.
The Sisters of Nazareth property in Derry was like Auschwitz, youngsters’ screams of despair still haunting survivors, the UK’s largest ever inquiry into institutional child abuse was told.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/termonbacca-nuns-nearly-psychotic-abuse-survivor-tells-of-screams-of-despair-621080.html

Years later, some charge sexual abuse by nuns

A half-century after his Catholic school boyhood, John Kerrigan says he is still haunted by the memories: a figure draped in the mantle of the church, finding sexual gratification through his fearful 12-year-old body.
Though his story echoes countless others in the ever-widening church molestation scandal, it differs in that the alleged abuser was not a priest.


http://www.robinwashington.com/articles/articles_nuns.html

Flowers laid in memory of Ross laundry women

The third annual Flowers for Magdalene's memorial ceremony took place in St. Stephen's Cemetery, New Ross, recently drawing people from across the region.

A large crowd gathered despite the inclement weather conditions to lay flowers in homage to women who died behind the walls of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Magdalene Laundry. With the demolition of St Aidan's Industrial school, which formed part of the Good Shepherd campus in New Ross, in December 2015, the communal grave in St Stephen's cemetery offers the only visual reminder of the Magdalene legacy in New Ross.

http://www.independent.ie/regionals/newrossstandard/news/flowers-laid-in-memory-of-ross-laundry-women-34561810.html 

Convent paid 'pocket money' to laundry survivors to pack toys as recently as 2012

Don't you believe it... the nuns would not be paying their slaves... out of their own pockets... they would be receiving money from these same... multinational toy manufacturer Hasbro... who provided materials for packaging... and residents involved would receive payment in return... cheap labor is what the nuns know well about... when we worked for them in our teens... the government paid for our keep... and the 16hours per-day that we slaved for them...worked from 5am to 8pm at night... seven days a week... year in and year out... not a day off... even when we were sick... we saw not a penny of that money...  Ann

======================================

Women resident in the Good Shepherd Sisters convent in Waterford were given 'pocket money' in exchange for packing board games as recently as 2012, the Sunday Times reports.
The paper says many of these women are survivors of Magdalene laundries who continued to live in sheltered housing after their closure.

http://www.newstalk.com/Convent-paid-pocket-money-to-laundry-survivors-to-pack-toys-as-recently-as-2012 

Government names 14 Mother-and-Baby homes to be investigated

A three-year investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will be conducted following the revelations last year about the deaths of almost 800 children at the Tuam home, the Government confirmed today.
The inquiry will be able to exhume graves if it needs to, the Minister said. The inquiry will look at 14 homes and a representative sample of County Homes and report on various aspects within 18 months.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/government-names-14-mother-and-baby-homes-to-be-investigated-657404.html#! 

Illegal adoptions: Exposing the pain of one of Ireland's hidden scandals

Illegal adoptions... happen in the catholic church orphanages worldwide... New Zealand was right into that... I was put up for adoption 5 times... and can only remember one of them... I was 4 and 3/4 years old at that time... Mrs. Fletcher... ... they took me back 6days later... and then took another girl away... she came back 3months later... and then another girl went with Mrs. Fletcher... they adopted her... but she came back also to stay with us...  Ann

===================================

Journalists and commentators get accused of imposing the morality and ethics of 21st century Ireland on an Ireland which bears no comparison.
As a result, we hear that the religious orders and nuns who ran these homes and institutions “did their best” operating within a very different set of moral boundaries. In short, people thought differently and the treatment of unmarried mothers and their children was an acceptable, if unfortunate, aspect of that society

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/illegal-adoptions-exposing-the-pain-of-one-of-irelands-hidden-scandals-273840.html 

Questions raised about mother-and-baby homes 75 years ago

Concerns were raised in and outside of the State in 1939 — with the quality of care even being raised by senior officials at the Department of Local Government and Public Health. Children born to unmarried mothers between 1923 and 1950 were four times more likely to die than those born to a married couple, according to studies of the Registrar General annual reports.
The interdepartmental report published earlier this week shows that in 1939, the inspector for boarded out children in the Department of Local Government and Public Health, Alice Litster asked why illegitimate children living in impoverishment seemed to be faring better than those in the care of religious orders.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/questions-raised-about-mother-and-baby-homes-75-years-ago-275859.html 

We should all take a moment this Christmas to mourn children who died alone in mother and baby homes

We should all take a moment this Christmas to mourn children who died alone in mother and baby homes and at Easter time...
We would walk around the play grounds for three hours on Good Friday afternoon... from 12pm to 3pm... they were the 3 hours... which Christ had died... we were not allowed to talk to each other... or leave that line... to even go to the toilet... we had our rosary beads on us... and we had to keep saying the rosary... to ourselves...
Can you just picture children from the age of 5years of age... up to 18years old... walking around for that long... and most of us wanting to go to the toilet... the jig was done a lot that day... and did we get thrashed that night... even if it was raining... we had to walk for those 3 hours... you just could not do anything right... the harder you tried... the worse it got for you...  Ann

 ===============================

Children in mother and baby homes were "buried in the dead of night with no priest, no cleric, no ritual, no mother beside them”, writes Fergus Finlay.
There’s no ad on radio quite like the Barry’s Tea Christmas ad. I’m not a tea drinker, but I always insist on having a packet of Barry’s in the house, especially at this time of year.  You must know the ad. It’s been running for more than 20 years. I wait for it every year, because the instant I hear it, I’m six again.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/fergus-finlay/we-should-all-take-a-moment-this-christmas-to-mourn-children-who-died-alone-in-mother-and-baby-homes-372749.html 

Mother and Baby Homes: Revelations put State in uncomfortable position

The revelations contained in the report have clearly put it in an uncomfortable position. Despite the shock displayed once the Tuam babies story went global — it is now clear that the Government had possession of a report showing a higher death rate in Bessborough almost two years earlier.
When the report, compiled as part of the HSE’s examination of the State’s role in the Magdalene Laundries as part of the McAleese inquiry, was made public by the Irish Examiner in June, along with equally disturbing material relating to Tuam Mother and Baby Home, the reaction of Government was to first deny it had ever seen it, then admit that, in fact, two departments had the report before finally labelling the entire study “conjecture”.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/mother-and-baby-homes-revelations-put-state-in-uncomfortable-position-346552.html 

An Uncomfortable Truth. Catholic Whistleblowers

It is hard for many people to accept that women are also sexual abusers of children.  And it's probably harder for some to realize that there are Catholic sisters who commit such heinous crimes.  But we know of at least 1,000 cases recorded in this country which must be dealt with.
The most prominent organization of American nuns ,  the LCWR (Leadership Council of Women Religious) is in the spotlight right now because it is under investigation by the Vatican.   Although the LCWR enjoys strong support from American Catholics in this struggle, there is an embarrassing problem for the nuns on another front:  for over ten years, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) members have asked to speak to their general assembly at LCWR's annual conference. These are victims of childhood sexual abuse by nuns.  The survivors want to tell their stories and to offer preventive strategies to the religious orders.  But, since 2003, LCWR has refused to allow this.  No clear excuse is ever offered, beyond "This is not the venue. "

http://www.catholicwhistleblowers.com/whistleblower-essays/an-uncomfortable-truth 

Belgian man alleges abuse by nuns at foster home

A Belgian foster home asked potential victims of sexual abuse to come forward on Monday after a man said nuns had abused him there as a child in the 1960s.
The anonymous Belgian, now in his fifties, told local media on Monday that he was abused by nuns for several years from the age of five while he lived at the Stella Maris home in the town of Kortrijk, western Flanders.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-belgium-abuse-idUKTRE7022DH20110103

Nun Abuse Case Goes to Bankruptcy Court; Survivor Speaks Out

Suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse. A plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Helena (Montana) and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province ticked off the long-term effects of the sexual, physical and emotional abuse by nuns and priests that he and other plaintiffs suffered as children. 
“The memories keep coming back,” said the plaintiff, who asked to be referred to as John Doe. “It’s daily. You withdraw.” The problems have devastated individuals and entire communities, he said. 

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/02/06/nun-abuse-case-goes-bankruptcy-court-survivor-speaks-out-159034 

We Were Children

Warning: this film contains disturbing content and is recommended for audiences 16 years of age and older. Parental discretion, and/or watching this film within a group setting, is strongly advised. If you need counselling support, please contact Health Canada.
In this feature film, the profound impact of the Canadian government’s residential school system is conveyed through the eyes of two children who were forced to face hardships beyond their years. As young children, Lyna and Glen were taken from their homes and placed in church-run boarding schools, where they suffered years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the effects of which persist in their adult lives. We Were Children gives voice to a national tragedy and demonstrates the incredible resilience of the human spirit.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/we_were_children/trailer/we_were_children_trailer/ 

Catholic priests who abused New Zealand children will not be investigated

Decades after they suffered, victims of abusive Catholic priests and brothers are coming forward in record numbers.  Four Catholic priests or brothers have never faced justice for sexually abusing children, despite the church accepting their guilt.
The Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand has, for the first time, revealed the number of sexual abuse claims it has received, many of which are still being investigated.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/70377103/Catholic-priests-who-abused-New-Zealand-children-will-not-be-investigated 

Nuns appeal against choice of child abuse chairwoman

Two Catholic charities have raised fears of bias as they launched a legal challenge against the choice of the woman to chair Scotland’s public inquiry into historical child abuse.
The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul lodged a petition for a judicial review at the Court of Session, Edinburgh, objecting to Susan O’Brien, QC.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4481628.ece 

'Endemic' rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care

Beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children, Ryan report states.  Rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today.
The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child-abuse-claims

Good Shepherd Sisters denying history

The recent claims, by lawyer and lobbyist Bryan Keon-Cohen, that the Catholic Church is a law unto itself in its resistance of governmental responses to child abuse, could be applied to Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand.
On the 22^nd of this month, Good Shepherd, an organisation established by the Good Shepherd Sisters has scheduled a Festival at Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne in order to celebrate 150 years since the Good Shepherd Sisters arrived in Australia. The problem is that the summary, by Trish Carroll, Good Shepherd Mission Leader, of the history of the organisation, conveniently excludes the work of the Sisters in the twentieth century. So allow me to fill in the resounding gap.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15140 

Life in “The Mag”

Janice Konstantinidis, shares a current photograph, as well as her detailed history of her time from the age of 12 working in the laundry of Mount Saint Canice, Tasmania, one of the Magdalena laundries, nicknamed “The Mag”. Janice also includes recollections of the lengths some girls would go to in order to escape.
Mount Saint Canice... At the age of twelve, I was taken by my grandparents and father to Mount Saint Canice, one of the Magdalene Laundries. The laundry was run by the Order of Good Shepherd Nuns in Hobart, Tasmania. There were a number of these laundries in Australia, as well as in other parts of the world. I am not sure how or why it came to pass that women and children were taken in by the nuns, but I know that the courts had no hesitation in sending adolescent girls to these homes for punishment.

http://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2011/02/28/life-in-the-mag/

Abuse at St Stanislaus Boys Home, Adelaide, South Australia

We were just a normal middle class family. Mother stayed home looking after four children with another on the way. Father was an electrician by trade. Then my little sister was born. I was now the middle child.  Unfortunately my mother died as a result of complications giving birth to the last child. I was three years old. The new baby was put up for adoption. 
My father could not work and look after four young children.  He started drinking and drank himself into a stupor for the next eight years. He became a chronic alcoholic. The four children were separated and each stayed with a different aunty. I stayed with an aunty until I was five. I was a happy child, still in a family environment. At this stage my father decided that the children should be together. We were all placed in a children’s home where the nuns would look after us and give us a good private school education. 

http://netk.net.au/AbuseCases/StanislausTony.asp 

11 nuns sexually abused at least 95 kids from Montana reservation, lawsuit claims

Nearly a dozen Catholic nuns sexually abused at least 95 students at boarding and day schools run by the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, according to a lawsuit scheduled for trial later this year.
The suit — which was filed in 2011 in Lewis and Clark County, Montana – lists 95 plaintiffs but includes placeholders for up to 105 potential victims, reported the Global Sisters Report.

http://www.rawstory.com/2014/10/11-nuns-sexually-abused-at-least-95-kids-from-montana-reservation-lawsuit-claims/ 

Demanding justice for women and children abused by Irish nuns

An inquiry last year into Ireland's Magdalene laundries, where for decades thousands of women were forced to work by nuns, found no evidence that workers were abused. But those who experienced life inside laundry walls angrily reject this, and are insisting that the nuns be held accountable.

"Oh my God! You know what? This brings back so much memories," 65-year-old Elizabeth Coppin says as she pushes open the door to the Convent Church next to the Magdalene laundry where she was sent to work for the nuns when she was 14.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29307705 

Psychotic nuns ran children's home like Nazi concentration camp, abuse inquiry is told

We were bathed in Jeyes fluid, says a former resident Chain gangs had to polish floor until it sparkled Boy reported being abused, but sister did nothing.   Nuns who ran a hellhole children's home in Northern Ireland were virtually psychotic, a former resident said. 
The Sisters of Nazareth property in Londonderry was like a Nazi concentration camp, with youngsters' screams of despair still haunting survivors, the UK's largest ever inquiry into institutional child abuse was told.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/psychotic-nuns-ran-childrens-home-like-nazi-concentration-camp-abuse-inquiry-is-told-29959634.html 

Sex Abuse in the Church – Nuns Commit Sex Abuse Too

Child sex abuse is not just committed by men. Women, the elderly and even other children can sexually abuse a child. In addition, many people think of sex abuse within religious institutions as having been committed by men, or priests. However, sex abuse is also committed by nuns. Nun Convicted of Sex Abuse
In 2008, an elderly nun was convicted of sexually abusing at least two children while she was a teacher and principal of a Catholic elementary school in Milwaukee.The abuse was alleged to have occurred in the 1960’s, when she was in her late 30’s. In approximately 2006, two former students came forward and alleged that the nun had sexually abused them beginning when they were 13 years old. The abuse began with touching and eventually led to rape in the form of sexual intercourse. The nun eventually pled no contest in the case and served one year in jail.

http://www.laffeybuccikent.com/sex-abuse-in-the-church-nuns-commit-sex-abuse-too/ 

Nun Accused of Ungodly Acts Sister Norma Giannini served one year in jail for sexually abusing boys

A Catholic nun who served a year in jail after being convicted of sexually abusing young boys at a Milwaukee middle school in the 1960s is the focus of a new civil suit which alleges she'd done the same thing in Chicago before she was transferred to Milwaukee, and that her religious order knew of the abuse.

One of Sister Norma Giannini's victims, Gerald Cobbs, is suing the Sisters of Mercy, alleging they knew Giannini was an abuser.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/sister-norma-giannini-lawsuit-church-sex-abuse-052009.html 

'DNA test suggests priest rapes and impregnates 11-year-old, priests gang rape another and nuns sexually assault kids, tweens and teens'

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new oral and investigative journalism book addressed to Angela Merkel, Michele Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Alessandra Mussolini and Oprah Winfrey, parents, legislators, reporters and clergy are unaware cliches of "clergy child abuse" mask violent sexual assault of children, including rape, serial rape, gang rape, prostitution, pregnancy, kids giving birth, AIDS abortions, torture and murder.
The book calls for an end to all civil, criminal, state and federal statutes of limitation for sexual assault of kids, tweens and teens.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/book-expose-dna-test-suggests-priest-rapes-and-impregnates-11-year-old-priests-gang-rape-another-and-nuns-sexually-assault-kids-tweens-and-teens-93266119.html 

The Legacy of Church-run Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland

In the wake of the Ryan and Murphy reports*, both released in 2009, often the memories of the children, women and workers involved have taken a sideline to the question of who is to blame for systemic abuse. But while the Irish public attempts to heal from this broken past and demand justice, more stories are on the verge of disappearance: those of the unknown women and babies who lived in Church-run mother and baby homes and of the American families who adopted these children from the 1940s until the early 70s.
I spoke with Dr. Valerie O’Brien, lecturer and researcher in Applied Social Science at University College Dublin, about her joint project with Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, founder and CEO of Center For Family Connections in Boston and lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, to reach out to those involved and record a history obscured by Church and State. By sharing these stories, O’Brien and Maguire Pavao see an opportunity to positively affect modern adoption practices in Ireland as well as bring dignity to the mothers who were forgotten by their community.

http://irishamerica.com/2010/08/the-legacy-of-church-run-mother-and-baby-homes-in-ireland/ 

"I was tortured by nuns"

Abuse survivor Ann Thompson has put decades between her horrific childhood in Catholic orphanages and life today as a wife, mother and grandmother, but the demons of that nightmare past still haunt her.
"Sometimes I feel like a 12-year-old girl living in a woman's body - an old woman's body at that," she says. "oy spine is twisted and arthritic because I was thrown against the walls of the playroom again and again as a child and I've got arthritis in both hips as well. Because of all the slaps across my face and head with nuns' fists or sticks, I have chronic earache - the pain is like a hot needle."

http://annfreespiritnunsabusedchildren.blogspot.co.nz/p/blog-page.html 

Abuse in religious institutions

Sir: The Oscar-winning film, Spotlight (2016) had significantly more to offer than its eminent cast and celebration of classic journalism; it had a plot that spun around the investigation of the taboo theme: child molestation by priests inside the Roman Catholic Church of the US. 

No school of thought neither caters nor allows such perniciousness and inhuman actions; yet it is a part of every single society. Regrettably, the act of sexual abuse in religious institutions and communities is pretty common. Unfortunately, it is considered to taboo to hold well regarded religious figures accountable so it is kept hidden by the powerful, upper level of the hierarchy.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/letters/17-Mar-2016/abuse-in-religious-institutions 

“Pray For Us,” Says Lawyer for Nuns Who Are Accused of Decades of Child Abuse in Native-American School

When the topic is Catholic pedophilia, we tend to think of the perpetrators as priests — men. This upcoming child sexual abuse trial in Montana has only female defendants, though.

[T]he Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province will defend themselves against allegations that 11 sisters who served at the St. Ignatius Mission church and school on the Flathead Indian Reservation from the 1940s to the early 1970s physically, sexually and emotionally abused boarding and day school students.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/10/13/pray-for-us-says-lawyer-for-nuns-who-are-accused-of-decades-of-child-abuse-in-native-american-school/ 

Devotion and Deceit; Myra Hidalgo story

Myra Hidalgo was 14 when her older sister Mona shot herself in the head. During her second year in college, her 52-year-old mother died of heart problems weeks after undergoing what was supposed to be a routine angioplasty. Little more than a year later, her father, heartbroken, shot himself in the heart.
Within the next year, Hidalgo tried to take her own life - three times. First, she cut her wrists and swallowed a bottle of aspirin. Six months later, she tried to hang herself. A few months after that, she drank a bottle of pesticides labeled "fatal if swallowed." That time, she nearly succeeded.

http://www.iconbusters.com/iconbusters/htm/sex_crimes/lechery/devad.htm 

A former resident of a care home claims a nun force-fed Marmite and subjected to years of physical abuse.

Brian Daly raised a civil action against the Poor Sisters of Nazareth over his treatment in the home in Aberdeen. The 43-year-old was placed into care when a child because of his parents' mental health problems.
During his four years at Nazareth House, Mr Daly claims Sister Mary Margaret, a member of the order, punched and kicked him on a regular basis, hit him with a hairbrush and forced him to stand outside in a "state of undress".

http://stv.tv/news/north/108613-nun-force-fed-boy-marmite-and-physically-abused-him-in-care-home/ 

Historical Abuse Inquiry hears Sisters of Nazareth nuns 'were almost psychotic'

Nuns' treatment of children at a residential care home was "bordering on the psychotic", Northern Ireland's Historical Abuse Inquiry has been told.

Sisters of Nazareth nuns thumped and kicked children at Termonbacca, the first witness to give evidence said. The former resident described the home as a "hell-hole" and likened it to a concentration camp.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25929866 

Historical Abuse Inquiry: Boy punished for being 'left-handed'

A former resident at St Joseph's Catholic home, Termonbacca, has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry how he was punished for being left-handed.

Jon McCourt, a high profile campaigner to get the inquiry set up, has waived his right to anonymity. He also told the inquiry that he did not realise two other boys in a photograph were his brothers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26174442

Historical Abuse Inquiry: Nun 'beat girl black and blue'

The first female witness to give evidence to the Historical Abuse Inquiry said she was beaten by a nun until she was black and blue.
The woman, who is now 58, said she realised the nun enjoyed it when she cried so she stopped crying when she was hit.   She lived in Nazareth House in Bishop Street, Londonderry from 1957-1969.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26120249 

Suffer the children

One step forward, two steps back. Child sexual abuse by the clergy is not a problem that Pope Francis created, but it is one he promised to address.  It’s a shame then that not everyone in the church seems to be getting the message.

Tuesday, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on details that had been discovered by Cruxnow.com’s John Allen about a training manual for Catholic bishops — most importantly, about how they should handle the discovery of child sexual abuse by clergy.

http://www.thetelegram.com/Opinion/Editorials/2016-02-12/article-4433407/Suffer-the-children/1 

Abuse in religious institutions

Sir: The Oscar-winning film, Spotlight (2016) had significantly more to offer than its eminent cast and celebration of classic journalism; it had a plot that spun around the investigation of the taboo theme: child molestation by priests inside the Roman Catholic Church of the US. No school of thought neither caters nor allows such perniciousness and inhuman actions; yet it is a part of every single society. 

Regrettably, the act of sexual abuse in religious institutions and communities is pretty common. Unfortunately, it is considered to taboo to hold well regarded religious figures accountable so it is kept hidden by the powerful, upper level of the hierarchy.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/letters/17-Mar-2016/abuse-in-religious-institutions 

catholic church abuse: criminal nuns and priests

Most church insiders who have witnessed sexual abuse have chosen not to report it. BishopAccountability.org has put the first database of church whistleblowers - priests, nuns, church employees and volunteers --  who reported colleagues to church or civil authorities and fought their superiors’ concealment of abuse. These whistleblowers listed below are remarkable exceptions to those in the church who are enablers of worldwide child sexual abuse. 

http://catholicchurchabusebynunsandpriests.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/whistleblower-priests-and-nuns-turn-in.html 

Retired Bishop sorry for sexual abuse of children at Queensland orphanage

A retired Catholic bishop has confessed to a "terrible sense of shame and disgrace" over a failure to act more quickly on allegations of abuse against his priests and nuns.
Bishop Brian Heenan, who led Rockhampton diocese in Queensland, Australia from 1991 until he retired in 2013, admitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he had failed the children of the Neerkol orphanage.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/child.abuse.inquiry.retired.bishop.sorry.for.sexual.abuse.of.children.at.queensland.orphanage/52571.htm 

The Church of Christ Sadist

The Society of Jesus‘ Pacific Northwest unit and its insurers have agreed to pay a record $166.1 million to about 470 people who were sexually and psychologically abused as children by Jesuit priests from the 1940s to the 1990s, the victims’ attorneys said Friday.
Blaine Tamaki, an attorney in Yakima, Washington, described the payment as “the largest settlement between a religious order and abuse victims in the history of the United States.”

http://theatheistconservative.com/tag/jesuit-priests-and-nuns-abused-children-on-indian-reservations-for-years/ 

Full horror of Neerkol orphanage revealed at hearing

A stock whip wielded by a young man paints bloody stripes across a small boy's bare back while several nuns and dozens of children watch on.
Another boy is locked in a cramped cupboard for an entire day without food or water. His crime? Wetting the bed.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/full-horror-of-neerkol-orphanage-revealed-at-hearing-20150423-1ms5sa.html 

Child abuse at St Joseph's: 'We were not responsible'

For over a decade a group of children at St Joseph's industrial school in Kilkenny were abused. The Sisters of Charity and the then Minister for Education covered up that abuse and the order of nuns now refuses to take responsibility for what happened. By Mary Raftery
Some of the most startling revelations to have emerged from the recent public hearings of the Child Abuse Commission concern an industrial school in Kilkenny, St Joseph's, run by the Irish Sisters of Charity. It is a story of a bishop writing coded notes, of references to a mysterious Sister A, of adult seminarians running around naked with young boys, of a bishop too fragile to be told that children had been sexually abused, of cover-up at government minister level – and of a nun who today expresses sorrow on behalf of her order but refuses to apologise. It is above all the tragic story of children subjected to an appalling litany of over a decade of abuse.

http://politico.ie/archive/child-abuse-st-josephs-we-were-not-responsible 

Lawsuit Claims Sex Abuse by Miami Nun

Man claims he was groped and fondled at Catholic school in late 70s.  A South Florida man claims he was the victim of sex abuse at the hands of a Catholic nun over 30 years ago in Miami.

A lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of the man identified as John Doe No. 73, claims he was groped and fondled when he was a first grader at St. James Catholic School in North Miami in 1978 and 1979.

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Lawsuit-Claims-Sex-Abuse-by-Miami-Nun-119844329.html 

Ann’s Story... Ann Free Spirit

I am a survivor of severe multiple kinds of child abuse in two catholic church orphanages from October 1941 to March 1966… 25years of abuse. They promised me heaven, but they led me to hell. I lived in two catholic church orphanages, which every one called, a place of God. My childhood was full of hate, from all adults around me.
The two orphanages were very cold, both day and worse at night. I wore a sugar sack, it was called the clothes of the unwanted children and to be always told, that I should be grateful to them, for taking me in. they took me away from my mother, she held on to me for two months and would not let them take me, but the catholic church won. My mother was to suffer the rest of her life, because they pulled me out of her arms, by St. Vincent De Paul.
I have suffered all of my life because of the abuse and sexual abuse,  which was done to me by nuns, women workers, the older girls and a priest, YES women, girls and nuns do sexually abuse children, boys and girls, the same as men do.

Ann’s Story.. New Zealand Historic Abuse

Catholic church will name 50+ priests who abused 100s of children in state

This story is the first of a two-day series on the aftermath of the proposed bankruptcy settlement of sex-abuse cases against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena.
HELENA — Most of the 362 sex-abuse victims who sued the Catholic church of western Montana, saying they were abused years ago by priests and nuns, will get monetary damages from a settlement with the church.

http://mtstandard.com/news/local/catholic-church-will-name-priests-who-abused-s-of-children/article_fbbf5d84-a1c7-11e3-9dab-0019bb2963f4.html 

Nuns implicated in deaths of 800 children found in septic tank

Neglect and abuse: The Irish government is launching a criminal investigation into the discovery of 800 dead children found in the septic tank at a home for unwed mothers run by nuns in western Ireland.

Reports indicate the children were malnourished and neglected by the nuns, which is suspected of causing many of the premature and tragic deaths. Hundreds of infants and toddlers in a home for “fallen women” and their “illegitimate” children are believed to have been buried in a septic tank next to the former home for single mothers and their children.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/06/nuns-implicated-in-deaths-of-800-children-found-in-septic-tank/ 

Dimanno: “Outback nun” patron saint to sexually abused

There is no small irony in the Roman Catholic Church having a patron saint for sexually abused children.

Whether St. Dymphna ever actually existed or is merely a mythological figure is up for debate. It’s unclear — to me anyway — whether this alleged 7th century personage even remains on the Church’s official saint calendar, though she has a feast day (May 15), a shrine in Ohio, and is venerated in the Irish village where she’s said to have been born.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2010/10/18/dimanno_outback_nun_patron_saint_to_sexually_abused.html 

A letter from a victim of nun abuse

"Dear Mr. Abbott,
"You published one of my letters June 14, 2004. In it I explained that I was the victim of sexual abuse by an Ursuline [nun] at a boarding school in southern Minnesota run by the Ursulines. It is now an ecumenical retreat center run by the same order.
"I told you that the bishops, notably Archbishop Flynn, refuse to take any responsibility for the other church leaders besides priests who have sexually abused children, teens, and vulnerable adults. Those others are Catholic nuns, youth leaders, lay ministers, paid lay employees, volunteers. Understanding that nuns are autonomous, answerable only to themselves and the Pope, isn't it time we demand that all victims of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by Catholic Church leaders be given a voice?

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/041209 

Historical Abuse Inquiry hears Sisters of Nazareth nuns ‘were almost psychotic’

Nuns' treatment of children at a residential care home was "bordering on the psychotic", Northern Ireland's Historical Abuse Inquiry has been told.

Sisters of Nazareth nuns thumped and kicked children at Termonbacca, the first witness to give evidence said. The former resident described the home as a "hell-hole" and likened it to a concentration camp.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25929866 

Canada's dark history of abuse at residential schools

Truth and Reconciliation Commission finds Canada guilty of 'cultural genocide' and abuse of Aboriginals.  Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report accusing the government of committing "cultural genocide" against indigenous survivors of the government's brutal residential school system.
It was a damning indictment of Canada's role in forcing some 154,000 Aboriginal children into those schools between 1874 and 1996.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/06/canada-dark-history-abuse-residential-schools-150603063117033.html

Not Just Boys: Catholic Church Abuse of Women + Girls

It was indeed outrageous that the Reverend Raniero Cantalamessa, with the Pope in eyeshot, compared the public outcry over the Catholic Church priest abuse scandal to homicidal anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany.
But there was another reason to be troubled by Cantalamessa’s homily. Though he admirably addressed the crucial need to end violence against women, he did so without any acknowledgment of the church’s own culpability in the abuse, endangerment and intimidation of women.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/04/14/not-just-boys-catholic-church-abuse-of-women-girls/ 

Nuns Accused Of Systematic Abuse -- Quebec `Orphans' Were Classified Retarded For Subsidies, Suits Claim

MONTREAL - In a dark episode of Quebec's postwar history, as many as 8,000 children were falsely declared mentally retarded and then mentally, physically and sexually abused by nuns who ran the orphanages where they lived, according to hundreds who have claimed to be victims.
The alleged misdeeds occurred in the 1940s and '50s, when the Roman Catholic Church dominated Canada's French-speaking province, and they remained a secret for 40 years. But in the last year, the orphans - as they are called here, although most were illegitimate children - have begun speaking out.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930402&slug=1693917 

Nazareth nuns apologise for homes’ abuse

The inquiry into historical abuse has heard an apology from the Sisters of Nazareth for the abuse and hurt suffered by children in their care homes. The religious order of nuns - which ran a number of children’s homes in Derry - said it “apologised unreservedly” for any abuse suffered by children in their care.
Two Derry homes run by the Sisters are among a number of church and state institutions which are now at the centre of the UK’s largest ever investigation into alleged abuse over seven decades.

http://www.derryjournal.com/news/nazareth-nuns-apologise-for-homes-abuse-1-5807555 

Child sex abuse in Dutch Catholic Church revealed

Amid the high-profile child sexual abuse scandals in the United States and other European countries, the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands has remained unsullied. A joint investigation by NRC Handelsblad and Radio Netherlands Worldwide shows this is unjustified.

Janne Geraets, now 57, suffered repeated sexual abuse from the age of 11 at the hands of a priest at the Roman Catholic school where he was a boarder. His ordeal began in 1964, at the Don Rua monastery in the town of 's-Heerenberg in the east of the Netherlands.

http://vorige.nrc.nl/article2493257.ece

Child Abuse by Nuns

There have been many reports of sexual and physical abuse of children by nuns.1. In 2009, the Sisters of Mercy offered to pay "a further €128m (£117m) to compensate for decades of abuse in its schools and orphanages."
"The compensation offer to the Irish education department is by far the largest from 18 orders of Catholic priests, brothers and nuns found guilty of chronic child abuse...

http://www.shiachat.com/forum/topic/235016136-child-abuse-by-nuns/ 

Lawsuit Against 11 Nuns Who Sexually Abused At Least 95 Children

A lawsuit that is scheduled for trial later this year claims 11 Catholic nuns sexually abused 95 children at day schools and residential schools run by the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province. The suit was filed in 2011 in Lewis and Clark County in Montana. Not only does the lawsuit list 95 plaintiffs, but it also includes placeholders for as many as 105 potential victims.
The trial is expected to begin on December 1, which is when the plaintiffs’ attorneys will start trying to prove the 11 accused, who served at St Ignatius Mission School from the 1940s through 1970s, abused students belonging to the Flathead Indian Reservation, emotionally, physically and even sexually.

http://www.atheistrepublic.com/news/lawsuit-against-11-nuns-who-sexually-abused-least-95-children 

Catholic officials knew of teacher's abuse, court files indicate

The Catholic-school teacher had a pre-teen student pinned to the ground in his Baltimore classroom, the girl's blouse open and her chest exposed when the doorknob suddenly turned and the school principal — a nun — burst in.
The screaming girl thought she was about to be rescued, according to court records that describe the scene at the Catholic Community Middle School in Locust Point. But Sister Eileen Weisman, who had a key to the room, merely chastised the teacher, John Joseph Merzbacher, for locking the door.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-11-25/news/bs-md-archdiocese-merzbacher-20121124_1_alleged-abuse-sexual-abuse-catholic-community-middle-school 

Termonbacca resident tells of abuse

A priest told a former resident of a children's home in Northern Ireland he was the product of an evil and satanic relationship, an inquiry has heard.

The witness lived at St Joseph's in Termonbacca, Londonderry, in the 1950s. He said he became a zombie, introverted and fearing the next beating.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25948005 

Sisters of Nazareth evidence 'haphazard and piecemeal'

Sisters of Nazareth nuns have given their evidence to Northern Ireland's Historical Abuse Inquiry in a "haphazard and piecemeal fashion", the inquiry has been told.

The inquiry is investigating abuse claims against children's residential institutions from 1922 to 1995.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25903194 

Historical Abuse Inquiry told of Termonbacca abuse by older boys

A witness has told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry that he was sexually abused by older boys at a children's home in Londonderry.
He also told the inquiry that the home, Termonbacca, was "run on starvation". The children's home and another in Derry, Nazareth House, were run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25957277

Sisters of Nazareth nuns 'were almost psychotic'

Nuns' treatment of children at a residential care home was "bordering on the psychotic", Northern Ireland's Historical Abuse Inquiry has been told.

Sisters of Nazareth nuns thumped and kicked children at Termonbacca, the first witness to give evidence said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25929866 

Boy punished for being 'left-handed'

A former resident at St Joseph's Catholic home, Termonbacca, has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry how he was punished for being left-handed.

Jon McCourt, a high profile campaigner to get the inquiry set up, has waived his right to anonymity. He also told the inquiry that he did not realise two other boys in a photograph were his brothers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26174442 

Voices of the lost: Speaking of being sent to Australia as a child migrant

Ann McVeigh was five years old when the nuns sent her away. Born to a single mother in 1944, she had been put in an orphanage at the age of three weeks.
Her mother, from Armagh, never forgot her. She had gone on to marry and have other children and always intended coming back for her eldest daughter.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-24631170 

Man became prostitute after suffering sexual abuse

A retired company director has told the Historical Institutional abuse Inquiry that he became a teenage prostitute in Australia after suffering abuse at a Church of Ireland children's home.

He was among a group of boys shipped out of Northern Ireland as part of a child migrant scheme in the mid 1900s.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29059595

Boys painted black to look 'like Aborigines'

A man has told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry that he and other young boys being shipped from Northern Ireland to Australia had their faces painted black to make them look like Aborigines.

More than 100 children were shipped to Australia in the mid 1900s. Now in his 70s, the man was sent there in 1953, from the Termonbacca children's home in Londonderry.  He also said he was the victim of physical and sexual abuse.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29127119

Sisters of Nazareth 'put hands up' over child migrants

The Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth has told an inquiry it has to "put its hands up" over its involvement in a child migrant scheme to Australia.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is examining child abuse in religious and state-run institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995. The current phase is examining what happened to children sent to institutions in Australia.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29159760 

Advocates for sexual-abuse victims want diocese to fire nun

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Supporters of those who were abused by priests kept pressure on Roman Catholic church leadership Tuesday, calling for swift action against those identified in an investigation.
Protestors from the Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests, or SNAP, stood at the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese administration complex to push for changes following last week’s release of a scathing grand jury report by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

http://www.dailyitem.com/news/advocates-for-sexual-abuse-victims-want-diocese-to-fire-nun/article_c61d6ad8-e5b6-11e5-be79-13bcff317a17.html 

HIA inquiry: Good Shepherd Sisters face abuse allegations

A congregation of nuns faces allegations of child abuse, a public inquiry has heard. Ten people have made claims to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry about the Good Shepherd Sisters.
Between 1922 and 1995, the nuns cared for 4,287 children and adults at homes in Belfast, Londonderry and Newry in County Down.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-35739289 

Irish church faces questions over mass grave

Bones of hundreds of children found in former septic tank thought to be those of orphans who died between 1926 and 1961. The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is facing fresh accusations of child neglect after a researcher found records for 796 young children believed to be buried in a mass grave beside a former orphanage for the children of unwed mothers.
The researcher, Catherine Corless, says her discovery of child death records at the Catholic nun-run home in Tuam, County Galway, suggests that a former septic tank filled with bones is the final resting place for most, if not all, of the children.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/irish-catholics-under-fire-over-mass-grave-201463215031168337.html

Dead babies and Ireland's dark past

Tuam, Ireland - "Everyone knew there was babies buried here, but we thought it was only a small few," says James Mannion, a resident of this western town. Camera crews and satellite vans assemble in the middle of a housing estate in Tuam. Mannion and other locals have come down to have a look. All are focused on a walled-in, grassy area the size of a basketball court.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/mass-baby-grave-ireland-dark-past-2014611122759192401.html 

Catholic Ireland's saints and sinners

A story of faith, love and abuse.  Colm O'Gorman is a man in demand. When we met him, Amnesty International Ireland had just released a report on public attitudes to abortion, still illegal in Ireland, and as executive director he has to field inquiries from the media.
He regularly writes for national newspapers and appears on TV and radio championing the poor and marginalised; he's also one of Dublin's most sought-after public speakers.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/12/catholic-ireland-saints-sinners-151214103321394.html 

Survivors remember Ireland's Magdalene laundries

Women incarcerated in Catholic Church-run institutions and forced to work for free remember those who died in them.  As survivors of Ireland's Magdalene laundries prepare for a national day of remembrance, many question the sincerity of the government's apology to women held against their will in the Catholic Church-run institutions. 

These laundries - often described as "prisons" by the women who worked in them - were established in the 18th century for Ireland's 'fallen' women and remained in operation until 1996, when the last laundry closed. 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/03/survivors-remember-ireland-magdalene-laundries-160305145209402.html 

Blame for N Ireland abuse seen beyond church

As an abuse case begins in Northern Ireland, was the Protestant government as culpable as the Catholic Church?
Sitting opposite me in a hotel room in the town where she was brought up, Katie Walmsley quietly described her childhood. Her parents were splitting up, a priest suggested to her dad that the best place for her would be a children's home for girls. The nuns would keep her safe and well.

http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2014/02/98396.html

HIA: Chairman announces a further six institutions to be investigated

A further six institutions are to be investigated by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA), its chairman has announced. Sir Anthony Hart said their inclusion would bring the total number to 22.
He stressed that the inquiry, which has held 157 days of oral hearings, will still complete its work by July 2016.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-34719873?post_id=10204672433356106_10206186890216581#_=_ 

Historical Abuse Inquiry: Woman 'sexually abused by nun'

A woman has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry how she was sexually abused by a nun when she was a young child.

The woman, now in her 50s, said she was aged four or five at the time and lived in Nazareth House, Londonderry

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26133167 

NI abuse inquiry: Two Catholic orders apologise

Two religious orders in the Catholic Church have apologised for the abuse suffered by children in their residential homes.

The comments were made on the second day of the inquiry into historical abuse in 13 Northern Ireland care homes and borstals between 1922 and 1995. Lawyers for De La Salle Brothers and Sisters of Nazareth made the apologies.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-25730998

Abuse inquiry: 'Termonbacca beatings left me deaf'

A former resident of St Joseph's Catholic children's home, Termonbacca, has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry that he is partially deaf because of the beatings he received there.

Michael McMoran said one nun targeted him for 10 years, hitting him about the head with a brush, mop or tree branch.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26339860?post_id=10204672433356106_10206186935457712#_=_ 

Alleged Victims Recall Abuse by Nuns

Nine former students at a now-defunct school for the deaf claim in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that they were beaten, sexually molested and emotionally tormented by the nuns who ran the school.
The plaintiffs are suing at least 14 nuns, along with two priests, an athletic instructor and a former top official in the Boston archdiocese, according to their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian (search).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/05/12/alleged-victims-recall-abuse-by-nuns.html 

Nuns in court over alleged kid assualt

The alleged abuse of children by nuns at a Greytown convent was exposed after a school principal noticed physical injuries to one of the children and reported it to social workers.
Midlands police spokeswoman, Lieutenant Joey Jeevan, said three nuns had appeared in the New Hanover Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/nuns-in-court-over-alleged-kid-assualt-1175437 

Vows of Silence?

Sexual abuse by nuns is rare, but it does happen. Even rarer are standards for nuns to follow in response to allegations of abuse.

Myra Hidalgo was 14 when her older sister Mona shot herself in the head. During her second year in college, her 52-year-old mother died of heart problems weeks after undergoing what was supposed to be a routine angioplasty. Little more than a year later, her father, heartbroken, shot himself in the heart.  

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/vows-of-silence/Content?oid=1240575

Five Catholic religious orders release files on L.A. clergy abuse

Confidential personnel records from five Catholic religious orders were turned over to victims of sexual abuse Wednesday in the first wave of a court-ordered public disclosure expected to shed light on the role the groups, operating independently of the L.A. Archdiocese, played in the region’s clergy molestation scandal.
The documents pertain to a dozen priests, brothers and nuns accused of sexual misconduct in the landmark 2007 settlement with hundreds of people who filed abuse claims against the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles. An additional 45 religious orders will release the personnel files of their accused clergy by this fall, completing what is believed to be the fullest accounting yet of the abuse crisis anywhere in the Catholic Church.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/31/local/la-me-ln-catholic-clergy-abuse-files-20130731 

Nuns accused of abuse at Boston School for Deaf

Nine former students at the now-defunct Boston School for the Deaf filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming they were the victims of emotional, physical and sexual abuse decades ago by the staff of the school, including at least 14 nuns.
Along with the nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph, the plaintiffs are suing two priests, an athletic instructor and a former top official in the Archdiocese of Boston, according to their lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-05-12/news/0405120304_1_sexual-abuse-mitchell-garabedian-boston-school 

Jersey Abuse Inquiry: Child Forced To Sleep Next To A Dead Nun At Care Home Of Horrors

A young girl was forced to sleep in a locked room next to a dead nun, a public inquiry into historical child abuse at a care home of horrors has heard.
The orphan girl, now in her 60s, told of the abuse she suffered at the hands of nuns at the Sacré Coeur orphanage, at Rouge Bouillon, Jersey, who beat children with spoons and forced them to work in a knitwear factory, the BBC reported.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/12/jersey-abuse-inquiry_n_5809756.html 

The Future of Catholic Celibacy May Be in Doubt

In 1998 a Roman Catholic nun named Marie McDonald wrote a brief and painful summary of her concerns to her colleagues and superiors. It was labeled "strictly confidential." She was worried, she said, about the sexual abuse of nuns by Roman Catholic priests in Africa.
The memo—titled "The Problem of the Sexual Abuse of African Religious in Africa and in Rome" was concise. "Sexual harassment and even rape of sisters by priests and bishops is allegedly common," it said. Sisters, financially dependent on priests, occasionally have to perform sexual favors in exchange for money. McDonald analyzed the causes of this widespread violation of chastity vows and then made this plea:

http://www.newsweek.com/future-catholic-celibacy-may-be-doubt-70613 

Torture, Assassinations, Vaccine Trials, Child Trafficking Conducted By Nuns Around The World

If you research nuns and their various religious orders, you will find the hypocrite values theyclaim to uphold. There is the Sisters of Mercy who claim to stand for love. The torture, assassinations, human experiments, child trafficking and organ trafficking they havemanaged to cover up for decades is now coming to light.
Victims of these crimes against humanity are finally speaking out to governments, criminalcourts, asking for help«but to little avail since the Governments have known of these abusesbut have covered them up since the Vatican owns most of the hospitals, mental institutions andschools of the land ± and coming up against them would mean the Vatican can threaten toremove them, and what would a government be left with without their service. Now you see whya lot of this has been left hushed for ages.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/53545205/Torture-Assassinations-Vaccine-Trials-Child-Trafficking-Conducted-By-Nuns-Around-The-World#scribd 

Ballarat Orphanage: Digging resumes for children's bodies

The search has resumed for children's bodies believed to buried in the grounds of an old Ballarat orphanage associated with historic sexual and physical abuse.
The orphanage closed in 1968 and the site has since been bought by a developer, but former residents raised concerns with Ballarat City Council two years ago that children's bodies may be buried there.
The former orphanage was built in the mid-1860s and was home to more than 4000 children during its tenure.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/ballarat-orphanage-digging-resumes-for-childrens-bodies-20150415-1mlbf4.html 

Goodreads Ireland discussion 31 views Stuff Worth Sharing > What did the nuns tell you at school?

Hi All & Declan,
I am making a general enquiry about what the nuns told you at school, for example, Sister Pauline took great delight in telling us what to do at parties, you can see the specific details below;
‘Whenever you’re at a party girls and the lights go out, I want you to jump up on the table and shout, I’m a good catholic girl, no one touch me.’

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1746614-what-did-the-nuns-tell-you-at-school

The Magdalene Laundries: Irish Report Exposes a National Shame

They were the forgotten women of Ireland, kept under lock and key, forced to clean and sew, and to wash away the sins of their previous life while never being paid a penny. Some stayed months, others years. Some never left.
They were the inmates of Ireland’s notorious 20th century workhouses, the Magdalene Laundries. And this week, with the publication of a government report into the dark history of the laundries, the women came that much closer to obtaining justice.

http://world.time.com/2013/02/07/the-magdalene-laundries-irish-report-exposes-a-national-shame/ 

Mass grave ‘filled to the brim with tiny bones and skulls’ shows how we cherish children

“CHERISH ALL THE children equally” is a defining Irish shibboleth, enshrined in the Proclamation of Independence. It is one of our highest aspirations and, like most of the things we Irish hold dearest, it is build on a solid foundation of utter hypocrisy.
Cherish all the children? By all available evidence, we Irish don’t even like children.
In the past week, a horror story has unfolded. Eight hundred children are buried in an unmarked mass grave in Tuam, Co Galway, in a disused septic tank on the former grounds of an institution known locally as “The Home”. The Bon Secours nuns operated “The Home” between 1926 and 1961 and over the years housed thousands of unmarried mothers and their “illegitimate” children.

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/mass-grave-galway-tuam-1494001-May2014/

Former residents to boycott nuns' reunion

Members of a support group for people who grew up in care say they will boycott a reunion organised by the Good Shepherd nuns as part of celebrations for the order's 150th anniversary in Australia.
Care Leavers Australia Network chief executive Leonie Sheedy said the nuns' event was inappropriate ''when they haven't acknowledged, or publicly apologised for, the damage that's been done to children in their care''.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/former-residents-to-boycott-nuns-reunion-20130620-2olqm.html 

Nuns want Helena diocese to pay sex-abuse settlements

An order of nuns facing child sex abuse lawsuits wants to bring the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena back into state court, saying the diocese should have to pay part of any judgment against the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province.
Attorneys for the Ursulines are asking a judge to lift a stay in legal proceedings that was granted to the diocese when it filed for federal bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/nuns-want-helena-diocese-to-pay-sex-abuse-settlements/article_3366d95c-ca5d-11e3-8ac9-0019bb2963f4.html 

Bishops investigating US nuns have poor records on sex abuse cases

From its palace in Vatican City, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith monitors compliance with Roman Catholic moral teaching and matters of dogma for the oldest church in Christendom.
These issues have little bearing on most of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Faith, for them, rests in parish life and the quality of their pastors. In the 1980s, for example, when the congregation punished theologians who dissented from the papal ban on artificial birth control, the majority of Catholics who believe contraception is morally acceptable did not change their opinion.

http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2013/01/bishops-investigating-us-nuns-have-poor-records-on-sex-abuse-cases/ 

The woman who was committed to an asylum after throwing tea at her husband

A WOMAN WHOSE great-grandmother spent over two decades in a Mullingar psychiatric hospital wants to see gravestone crosses remembering former patients moved out of the shed where they were stored four years ago.
Julianne Clarke told RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy Show this morning that the crosses were taken up in 2011 for maintenance work on the grounds of St Loman’s Hospital

http://www.thejournal.ie/st-lomans-hospital-mullingar-2535346-Jan2016/ 

Victim protest outside Bishop Mulkearns' Ballarat nursing home

A GROUP of women claiming to have been abused by the Ballarat clergy in the 1950s and 1960s have  started a protest outside Nazareth House, the Ballarat nursing home where Bishop Ronald Mulkearns now lives.
Bishop Mulkearns, now retired, is due to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday via video link from the Mill Street nursing home.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/royal-commission-victim-protest-outside-bishop-mulkearns-ballarat-nursing-home-20160224-gn2d26.html 

Magdalene asylum survivor admits her pain ‘will never go away’

Though nearly five decades have gone by, the horrors of the Magdalene asylums are still fresh in the memory of Mary Currington.
After being raised by nuns in her native New Ross, County Wexford, she worked on a farm and then from the age of 18 she toiled in the sewing room of a complex in Cork.

http://www.dunstabletoday.co.uk/news/local-news/magdalene-asylum-survivor-admits-her-pain-will-never-go-away-1-7249875 

Orphanage witness describes abuse by priest, beatings by nuns

Diane Carpenter, who lived at Neerkol intermittently until she turned 17, was giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is holding public hearings in the central Queensland city.
The inquiry is continuing to hear evidence from former residents of the orphanage, where hundreds of children were physically and sexually abused from the 1940s to 1970s.

http://cathnews.com/cathnews/61-archive/21075-witness-describes-sexual-abuse-by-priest-beatings-by-nuns-at-orphanage 

Catholic nun stands trial over 63 counts of physical and sexual abuse of children Catholic nun stand

A Catholic nun has been charged with the “systematic” abuse of seven schoolgirls in the 1970s. Sister Mary Teresa Grogan has denied the 63 counts of indecent assault put to her.
It is alleged that these crimes took place while she was teaching in a primary school (middle school) in the midlands of Ireland from 1973 to 1977. All of her victims were the same age, in third class, approximately nine-years-old.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2960566/posts 

Gozo nun probed on abuse claims Gozo’s Lourdes Home was closed down in 2008

A Dominican nun has been questioned by the police over allegations that she abused a boy in care at Lourdes Home in Gozo. The nun, who lives at the Dominican Order’s Pompeii House in Victoria, was interviewed by the vice squad onFriday in relation to abuse allegations that date back around five years.
Police sources confirmed that the nun was released but investigations are ongoing. The complainant is believed to still be a minor, though it is not clear what type of abuse is being alleged.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110522/local/Gozo-nun-probed-on-abuse-claims.366631 

Victims of Nun's Sex Abuse Need Our Compassion, Too

Imagine the reaction of the thousands of men and women sexually abused by American nuns to the continuous media coverage lauding their tormenters and torturers as the ultimate practitioners of virtue. In response to the multitude of commentaries championing religious women against the Vatican, I agree with Kris Ward of the National Survivors Advocates Coalition (NSAC) who wrote:
[I]t is important and imperative that in this time and at this juncture we must say that while being bullied, being treated rudely, and being investigated is offensive and insulting, it is not on the same par as an innocent and vulnerable child's body being raped, sodomized, forced into a crucifixion poses and made to mock the God that was systematically being taken from them in the vilest of ways.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/6/6/1097871/-Victims-of-Nun-s-Sex-Abuse-Need-Our-Compassion-Too 

Lawsuit against St. Ignatius Ursuline Academy to proceed, lawyers say

Lawyers representing victims of sexual assault that allegedly occurred for more than 40 years at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius are pledging to take the case to trial this summer – even after the Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy Friday to settle a similar lawsuit.
The case against the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province alleges that 10 nuns sexually abused Native American children at the Catholic boarding school from the 1930s to the 1970s, and lists 37 men and women as the victims of sexual molestation.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/lawsuit-against-st-ignatius-ursuline-academy-to-proceed-lawyers-say/article_960007e4-8ae5-11e3-b78d-001a4bcf887a.html 

Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools

A little while ago, I was supposed to attend a Halloween party. I decided to dress as a nun because nuns were the scariest things I ever saw," says Willetta Dolphus, 54, a Cheyenne River Lakota. The source of her fear, still vivid decades later, was her childhood experience at American Indian boarding schools in South Dakota.
Dolphus is one of more than 100,000 Native Americans forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools. The system, which began with President Ulysses Grant's 1869 "Peace Policy," continued well into the 20th century. Church officials, missionaries, and local authorities took children as young as five from their parents and shipped them off to Christian boarding schools; they forced others to enroll in Christian day schools on reservations. Those sent to boarding school were separated from their families for most of the year, sometimes without a single family visit. Parents caught trying to hide their children lost food rations.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/node/87342

Nun placed on leave after abuse allegation

A Dominican nun who has served in five parishes in Greater Boston for the past 34 years has been placed on leave after being accused of sexual misconduct with a fifth-grade girl in an Indiana classroom 40 years ago.

Sister Ann Daylor, 67, director of religious education at St. Mary's Church in Georgetown in northeastern Massachusetts, appears to be the first nun to be removed for such an allegation this year. About 300 priests nationwide have been removed this year because of sexual abuse allegations.

http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/stories3/111402_nun.htm 

New Belgium nun child sex abuse case

Belgian prosecutors on Tuesday said they had opened a judicial inquiry after a fresh claim of sexual abuse in an institution for children run by nuns.
The latest probe follows a claim by a 63-year Belgian man to have been the target of sexual abuse in the 1950s in the Sint-Vincentius de Halen orphanage in the northeast region of Limbourg.  A separate inquiry was opened earlier this month after claims of abuse several decades ago in a school run by nuns at the other end of the country, in northwestern Courtrai.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/New-Belgium-nun-child-sex-abuse-case-20110111 

Six decades later, 2 men accuse nuns of sex abuse

From a sidewalk in Kearny, Henry Coffey, 80, points to the sections of the old Sacred Heart Orphanage where he says nuns molested and beat him as a boy in the early 1940s: the laundry room; the nuns’ quarters; the classrooms.
His sex-abuse claims will be hard to prove in court — the nuns are deceased, for one thing — but Coffey and another former orphanage resident, Frank Fioretti, 81, recently cleared a legal hurdle when a Superior Court judge in Essex County denied a motion to dismiss their 2005 suit.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/six_decades_later_2_men_accuse.html 

Database of accused clergy in Boston Archdiocese

At least 271 clergy — a mix of permanent and visiting priests, pastors, chaplains, deacons, religious order clerics, and nuns — have been publicly accused of child sex abuse in the Boston archdiocese, according to a Globe review.
Accusations have led to criminal charges, lawsuits, and reviews by church officials. Priests have been convicted, sentenced to jail, and stripped of their religious duties. In some cases, they’ve been cleared by the courts and the church.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/11/06/least-clergy-have-been-accused-child-sex-abuse-boston-archdiocese/5cKpjVOPhEh7IYnCwRqIJI/story.html 

Irish Panel Documents Physical, Sexual Abuse at Schools From 1930 to 1990

Thousands of children were physically and sexually abused by priests and nuns in orphanages and reform schools in Ireland from 1930 to 1990, a government commission said Wednesday in the first official accounting of the full magnitude of a scandal that has wrenched the deeply Roman Catholic nation.
The 2,600-page report, which capped a nine-year investigation, said rape and sexual abuse were "endemic" in boys' institutions funded by the state but run by the church. "A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys," it said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/20/AR2009052003809.html 

Child Sex Abuse Lawsuits Filed Against Catholic Nuns.

Two new lawsuits have been filed against the Franciscan Sisters Order, which is headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota. As with the sex abuse cases brought against Catholic priests, the alleged sex abuse in these cases was homosexual in nature. 
It would seem that American Catholics would be better served if the church leadership, such as Los Angeles' Cardinal Mahoney, showed more concern over sex abuse of children by priests and nuns and less concern over the US enforcing immigration laws

 http://www.newswithviews.com/Kouri/jim60.htm 

Clergy who sexually abused children include 16 who served in county

A list of Catholic clergy accused of sexually abusing children and teens includes 16 that served in Snohomish County.
The Archdiocese of Seattle released the list Friday afternoon. It includes priests who have died, been defrocked or who are living a life of “permanent prayer and penance” after they either admitted to sexually abusing children or the church found that allegations against them were credible. Permanent prayer and penance means the priests are not allowed to do public ministry anymore.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160115/NEWS01/160119247