Oh, Canada!

"Residential schools.” On the surface, the term sounds benign, even bucolic, the sort of place where upper-class Britons would send their children in preparation for Oxford. But for Native Peoples in Canada, residential schools are the stuff of nightmares.
For a century, from the 1880s until the mid-1980s, the government of Canada maintained a system of boarding schools for Native children that were operated by churches, including the Anglican and Presbyterian churches, the United Church of Canada, and the Roman Catholic Church. The schools’ ostensible purpose was to provide education for Native children.

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/canada/oh-canada 

Broken Rites supported these orphanage victims but a bishop supported the offender

When Broken Rites launched its national telephone hotline in September 1993, our first callers included former inmates of a Catholic orphanage (St Joseph's Home, at Neerkol, near Rockhampton, Queensland). Some of these callers said they were sexually assaulted by Father Reginald Basil Durham, who was the "chaplain" at this orphanage.
Broken Rites advised these victims how to obtain justice. In 1996 the church authorities were still protecting Durham and denying the crimes. The church's cover-up in the 1990s has been revealed again in 2015 at a public hearing of Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission.

http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/34 

New Catholic child abuse allegations surface

Berlin, Germany (CNN) -- Four Catholic priests and two nuns have been accused of sexually abusing children in Germany's diocese of Regensburg, the diocese confirmed Monday.
Five of the six cases date back to the 1970s, while the sixth is from 1984, the diocese said. The six clergy members are all still alive. Seven people have come forward with the allegations. The diocese said it is cooperating with the police, and two of the cases have been handed over to judicial authorities.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/22/germany.abuse/ 

Nun 'force-fed boy Marmite and physically abused him' in care home

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.

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

The Government Has Been Forced to Hand Over Documents About Abuse of Native Children at St. Anne’s Residential School

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled that the Federal Government disclose thousands of police documents concerning the torture of native children at St. Anne’s residential School in Fort Albany, Ontario. The infamous school—where children as young as six were disciplined in an electric chair—is, at least to this date, perhaps the most egregious example of the abuses inflicted upon children who were forced into the residential school system.
The government has been withholding transcripts and documents related to an Ontario Provincial Police investigation that looked into these abuses when a group of former students got together and filed their complaints in the early 90s. The Harper government and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Vaillancourt has cited “privacy concerns” (whose privacy?) as reason not to produce the documents, although it appears they may simply want to avoid the possibility of having to pay any compensation to the aging survivors.

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/the-government-has-been-forced-to-hand-over-documents-about-the-abuse-of-native-children-at-st-annes-residential-school

Nuns Are “Rats” and “Wimps” for Turning in Accused Priest

They’re rats and they’re wimps.” That’s what William Brennan, a lawyer representing a local priest who allegedly abused a 14-year-old in the 1990s while receiving monthly church stipends despite having already been accused of abuse, recently called the nuns who ratted out his client.
The nuns in question, if you can imagine such a thing, turned on the priest, who was living in a church residence with young men and throwing loud parties.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/01/26/nuns-rats-wimps-turning-accused-priest/ 

Catholic order of nuns settles claim by three who say they were abused

Three women who say they were sexually abused as children in the 1960s by a Roman Catholic nun say they hope to find peace when they meet today with the current and former leaders of the Franciscan Sisters, based in Rochester. St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson announced Thursday that two lawsuits, filed by Christine Bertrand of Sierra Madre, Calif., and Patti Schwartz of Minneapolis, were settled recently. A third filed by Bertrand's sister, Karen Britten of Chicago, was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired, Anderson said. 

http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/316/Archdiocese-of-Chicago-Documents.aspx 

Mental Health Profiles for a Sample of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Survivors of the Canadian Residential School System

The purpose of this research project is to examine the abuse, mental health and health profiles in a sample of 127 Aboriginal Survivors of the residential school system who have undergone a clinical assessment. Through an analysis of their case files, the report discusses: the demographic and problem profiles of residential school Survivors and their families prior to, during and after residential school; the residential school experiences of the sample; the prevalence and co-morbidity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental disorders; and the treatment needs of residential school Survivors.
Three clinical psychologists with extensive experience assessing residential school Survivors provided their clinical reports to be coded and analyzed for this research project. In light of the sensitive issues and the use of confidential information used for this report, oral consent was obtained by the 127 individuals that make up this sample. Concerning the oral consent, the three clinicians stated that, in dealing with residential school cases, they felt that it is imperative that oral consent was the most sensitive approach since their patients were more reassured not having to write their names on any document, particularly at the initial stage of their assessments and/or treatment.

http://www.ahf.ca/downloads/mental-health.pdf 

Lost children of the Empire and how uncovering their story has torn my family apart

On a summer's day in 1947, four small children excitedly boarded a huge ship. The O' Rourkes lived at a children's home in Belfast, and the nuns who ran it said they were sending them to England on a two-week holiday.
Instead, the SS Asturias finally docked at Fremantle, Western Australia, where a new group of nuns stripped and deloused the children, and announced they would never go home: their parents had been killed. It was a cruel lie.

 http://lisburn.com/pdf_files/child-migrants.pdf

Orphans Who Weren’t Recall Care That Wasn't Anthony DePalma.

MONTREAL — Down by the St. Lawrence River, in the parish hall behind the somber stone church of St. Peter the Apostle, Hervé Bertrand and other French Canadian Catholics gathered recently to condemn the church that has so thoroughly shaped most aspects of life in the province of Quebec. “I don’t have any problem with their God,” Bertrand said. “But I’ve got big problems with the people who made the decision that did this to me.”
Bertrand is now a 56-year-old plumber from a Montreal suburb with a wife and three grown children. He is one of about 3,000 French Canadians known as the “Duplessis orphans” because they were institutionalized in the 1940s and '50s when Maurice Duplessis was the iron-willed premier of Quebec.

http://www.cuckoografik.org/trained_tales/orp_pages/news/news12.html 

Betrayal of Faith

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA – Patricia Cahill is overcoming a life of abuse and secrecy at the hands of the Catholic church.Her childhood was destroyed by the sexual abuse of a priest and later when she was a teenager by the very nun in whom she confided the abuse.
Through alcohol, drugs and a position of authority, Sister Eileen Shaw determined, in large part, the woman Cahill is today. One with no sexuality and no understanding of normalcy, yet one with a strong drive to right the wrongs of a church that molded her into a quagmire of guilt.

https://rapevictimsofthecatholicchurch.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/betrayal-of-faith/ 

Alleged victim says abuse by nuns ‘not being addressed’

I have been saying this for years... NOTHING HAS BEING DONE ABOUT THE NUNS... RAPING CHILDREN IN THEIR CARE... no one seems to understand the true affect of being abused... and raped by nuns... it is an unspoken word... women and nuns abused... rape children...and teens... this should all come out in the open... it too quickly gets hidden away... because people do not want to believe that nuns... abuse and rape children... boys and girls...  Ann

 ===========================

Mary C. Dunford, an alleged victim of sexual abuse by a nun, would like more attention to be paid to the victim-survivors of abuse by women religious.
States Dunford (edited):
“I believe there are a number of reasons why abuse by nuns is not in the public eye and not being addressed. Taboos against believing female abuse exists and, most especially, female abuse by nuns; and statutes of limitation laws which, after brief period of time, keep victims from bringing charges. Typically victims don’t understand that they were abused, nor do they realize the extent of the damage until well into adulthood — different for each victim. The Catholic Church actively lobbies against any change in these laws.

https://rapevictimsofthecatholicchurch.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/alleged-victim-says-abuse-by-nuns-not-being-addressed/

HIA: Pensioner says Nazareth House nuns 'medieval'

Nuns at a children's home in Northern Ireland "operated in a medieval vacuum", a witness has told the Historical Abuse Inquiry. The pensioner was giving evidence via videolink from Perth in Australia.
He said he was sexually and physically abused both at Nazareth House in Belfast and at Rubane House in County Down. The man said that after he was transferred in 1956 to a boys' home in Australia, he was also abused there.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29538277 

Catholic order denies 'culture of collusion' over abuse

Among the litany of accusations that led to the recent announcement of a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse, none have been more shocking than those surrounding the Catholic order Saint John of God.

A former nun, who worked for the order, has spoken to 7.30 about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-06/ex-nun-speaks-out-about-catholic-order/4413736 

Royal commission into child sexual abuse concludes notorious Queensland orphanage run by ‘sadistic nuns’

SADISTIC nuns at a notorious Queensland orphanage dished out abuse in a toxic environment that festered due in part to inadequate government scrutiny, supervision and training, a royal commission has found.
The child sex abuse royal commission last year examined cruel treatment of 13 former residents of St Joseph’s Orphanage at Neerkol, near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse-concludes-notorious-queensland-orphanage-run-by-sadistic-nuns/news-story/e2a13a22f303913342d6fbce1132e505 

Report into St Joseph’s Orphanage released

The Royal Commission’s report into Case Study 26 - the response of the Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton and the Queensland Government to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol, was released today.
The report follows a public hearing held in April 2015 which inquired into the experiences of a number of people who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy, between 1940 and 1975.


http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2013-04/report-into-st-joseph%E2%80%99s-orphanage-released

Ex-Qld bishop 'placed children at risk'

Retired Rockhampton Bishop Brian Heenan placed children at risk of abuse by a pedophile priest because of his inadequate response to complaints, a royal commission has found.
The sex abuse royal commission examined St Joseph's Orphanage Neerkol, near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/04/21/13/16/neerkol-probe-raises-systemic-abuse-issues 

Neerkol orphanage findings and the place of compassion

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has now published its Case Study 26 on the Neerkol Orphanage in Rockhampton.
The Commission finds that the response by the bishop and by the Sisters of Mercy to victims making complaints prior to 1996 was often inadequate and lacking in compassion. It also makes a damning finding that the bishop was dishonest in a letter he sent to the diocese.

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=47242#.Vx7QFkc1eUm 

Federal government killed appeal of residential-school settlement ruling

The Canadian government abandoned an appeal of a controversial court ruling that let the Catholic Church out of its responsibility to raise millions of dollars for aboriginal healing programs, court documents show.

The appeal was dropped just six days after the Trudeau government took office. The revelation comes in a week when the Liberal government has repeatedly said that it had no options for appeal. It did not mention, however, that an appeal had been commenced and then withdrawn.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-scrapped-appeal-of-residential-school-settlement-ruling/article29704211/ 

2 sue priest, nun, Louisville archdiocese on sex abuse claim

Two men are suing a priest, the Louisville archdiocese, and a Dominican nun, claiming they were sexually abused by the priest in the 1970s and the Church failed to protect them.
The Rev. James Schook was convicted last year of molesting one of the two. He is serving a 15-year prison sentence at the Kentucky State Reformatory.

http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/05/04/2-sue-priest-nun-louisville-archdiocese-on-sex-abuse-claim/ 

Nun freed despite years of cruelty to children

A nun who was found guilty of repeated acts of cruelty against children in her care walked free from court yesterday after being admonished for her crimes. Several victims of Marie Docherty, also known as Sister Alphonso, reacted with disbelief and anger at the scale of the punishment.
A nun who was found guilty of repeated acts of cruelty against children in her care walked free from court yesterday after being admonished for her crimes. Several victims of Marie Docherty, also known as Sister Alphonso, reacted with disbelief and anger at the scale of the punishment.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/nun-freed-despite-years-of-cruelty-to-children-698797.html 

Northern Ireland child abuse inquiry: 'We were child slaves from a young age'

Amid blanket coverage of high-profile child sex abuse investigations in the wake of revelations involving Jimmy Savile and other celebrities, one child abuse inquiry has remained below the public's radar. But the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry is slowly emerging from relative obscurity.
The inquiry is separate from a recent major police investigation in the country that has led to the arrest of more than 30 people for sexual exploitation of children and young people who have gone missing from the care system over the past 18 months.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/25/northern-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry 

Catholic mass grave sites of 350,800 missing children found in Ireland, Spain, Canada

The atrocity of close to 800 emaciated childrens’ bodies buried in a Irish Nuns’ septic tank represented the 34th child mass grave site linked this week to the Catholic Church. Pope Francis was being prosecuted by the International Common Law Court of Justice (ICLCJ) in Brussels for allegedly trafficking 300,000 children of political prisoners through Vatican Catholic Charities during Argentine’s Dirty War.
According to witness testimony last week some of those orphans ended up in a child mass grave site in Spain. Last year’s ICLCJ prosecution concerned 50,000 missing native Canadian children. There have been 32 child mass grave sites uncovered so far in Canada, most of them on Catholic-run native residential school grounds.

http://childabuserecovery.com/catholic-mass-grave-sites-of-350800-missing-children-found-in-ireland-spain-canada/ 

Betty’s story Abuse at Goodwood Orphanage, Adelaide, South Australia 1950s

My time at the Goodwood orphanage has left emotional scars for life, and anger at being forced to endure and witness many beatings on myself and others. A childhood devoid of any love, kindness and understanding by these carers; fear being the only emotion that was readily displayed by the children.
Anger at the Catholic order for allowing nuns with obvious psychological problems, no self discipline, ignorance, inexperience, lack of ability and a callous indifference in looking after children and their needs. Being allowed to treat children in the way in which they did has had a devastating effect on my life, and that of many of the other children who passed through their hands.

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

Los Angeles Catholic church files show decades of sexual abuse

Court-ordered release of documents reveal what Catholic orders knew of sexual abuse by priests, brothers and nuns.  In therapy sessions, the priest confessed to shocking details he'd kept hidden for years: he had molested more than 100 boys, including his 5-year-old brother, had sex with male prostitutes, and frequented gay strip clubs.
The admissions of Reverend Ruben Martinez are among nearly 2,000 pages of secret files, unsealed Wednesday, which regard priests, brothers and nuns accused of child molestation while working in the Los Angeles archdiocese.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/los-angeles-catholic-church-decades-sexual-abuse 

Judge: Sisters need to investigate abuse allegations

Inclusion of two Catholic sisters in a July release of clergy sex abuse documents in the Los Angeles archdiocese highlights a need for sisters' orders to investigate abuse allegations, says a former leader of the lay group set up by the U.S. bishops to monitor the church's sex abuse policies.
"I think what we have learned in the last 10 to 12 years is that this is not a kind of misconduct that is peculiar to Roman Catholic priests," Judge Michael Merz told NCR Aug. 5.

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/judge-sisters-need-investigate-abuse-allegations 

Historical Abuse Inquiry: Sisters of Nazareth congregation admits abuse at homes

The Sisters of Nazareth congregation has admitted that abuse did take place at its homes in Londonderry.  Sister Brenda McCall, representing the congregation, told the Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA) that some of the evidence of former residents had been "very shocking and harrowing for us".
When asked if there had been physical abuse by some nuns, Sister McCall replied "unfortunately, yes".  The inquiry is currently examining events at two Derry children's homes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27482039

Child abuse inquiry: Neerkol Orphanage victims describe brutal treatment

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has begun its hearings into the St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage near Rockhampton. Sitting in the central Queensland city for the next fortnight, the commission will hear more than a dozen abuse victims describe their brutal treatment at the hands of priests, nuns and orphanage workers.

The commission will examine how the Catholic Church, the Sisters of Mercy Order and the Queensland government responded to the abuse allegations.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4216090.htm

A survivor of child abuse by the Sisters of Mercy speaks out

Irish woman Christine Buckley was put into the Goldenbridge Industrial School in Inchicore, Dublin when she was just 4 years old. Goldenbridge was a notorious religious institution that was run by the Irish Sisters of Mercy. Christine says she suffered horrendous and continual abuse by the nuns at the school until she left Goldenbridge when she was 17. In this video extract she tells Irish broadcaster Karen Coleman her story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtrEzjXwTNw 

Abuse by nuns is ignored

Last week, another child molesting nun was publicly exposed. She’s Sister Agnes Daniels, who worked at St. Mary School in Boston when she reportedly committed the abuse. (Thanks to attorney

In July, two other abusive nuns were publicly exposed: Sister Agnes Santomassimo and Sister Mary Joseph. Both allegedly molested in California. (Santomassimo also worked in Chicago. Joseph also worked in Idaho, Arizona and Washington state.) (Thanks to attorney Tony Demarco for disclosing the accusations.) Mitchell Garabedian for disclosing the accusations.)

http://www.snapnetwork.org/abuse_by_nuns_is_ignored 

Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: 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.

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

More church abuse scandal files released by 5 Catholic religious orders

Five Catholic religious orders released the confidential personnel files of a dozen priests and nuns accused of sexually abusing children for decades as they worked as trusted religious leaders in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
The 1,700 pages pertain to the 10 priests and two nuns who were accused in civil suits of molesting children while working in the nation's largest archdiocese. They were released under the terms of a 2007 settlement that paid $660 million to more than 500 alleged victims.

http://www.dailynews.com/article/ZZ/20130731/NEWS/130739897 

Catholic church in Scotland asks forgiveness from child abuse victims

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia pledges to make reparations and change practices after independent report accuses bishops of covering up crimes for decades
The Scottish Catholic church has offered a “profound apology” to victims of child abuse and the church’s failure to investigate and punish the culprits, after a damning independent report into its conduct.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/18/catholic-church-in-scotland-must-support-abuse-survivors-review-says 

Abuse at Goodwood Orphanage, Adelaide, South Australia 1950s

[The name of the Complainant has been changed in order to comply with the provisions of the Evidence Act SA]
My name is Bridget, and I migrated to Australia with my family who were from Eastern Europe. I was born in Western Europe, and my family had been in a displaced person’s camp prior to our move to Australia. My mother was not well, and she was admitted to mental hospitals. I think she suffered from depression. My brother was taken to the orphanage at Largs Bay.
In 1950 we lived at a country town in South Australia. I can remember that a car came for me. My mother was crying. We were taken to the orphanage at Goodwood. I can remember that my father visited me there, and that he made a couple of attempts to get us back. He was a shift worker with the railways.

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

I want an apology before I die':

Mary was one of them. Standing in that chilly cemetery she explained that she had found some solace in the sad business of laying out the bodies of the girls who had died.

'I would say to myself, “at least they’ll escape the nuns now and get some rest.”’  ‘I hate coming here. I come here to do what I have to do and then I leave as quickly as possible, to get back home.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2771725/I-want-apology-I-die-The-wayward-women-abused-nuns-Ireland-s-notorious-Magdalene-laundries-demanding-justice-two-decades-one-closed.html 

Thousands abused, died at hands of Catholic nuns, no apology

Yesterday thousands of women, youth and babies were honored at the Glasnevin Cemetery – victims of nuns at the Irish Catholic Magdalene Laundries. An estimated 30,000 suffered psychological, sexual, emotional and physical abuse and death at the hands of Catholic Sisters of the Magdalene Order. There were even stories of the Catholic nuns killing newborn babies of the women incarcerated there. http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/23818 The Vatican and Sisters of the Magdalene Order have yet to make an apology, or compensate victims. After 44 years survivors still awaited justice. The scandal broke in the 1970′s and the last laundry was closed in 1996. Finally in Feb 2013 and on behalf of the Irish government, Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologized for the hurt the women endured. He made a yet-to-be-kept promise to make available “a process to help and support the women in their remaining years.”

http://childabuserecovery.com/thousands-abused-died-at-hands-of-catholic-nuns-no-apology/ 

Woman 'destroyed by abuse' in Nazareth House children's home waives right to anonymity

A woman "destroyed" by sexual and physical abuse in a children's home run by nuns has become the first witness to waive her right to anonymity in the hope that other victims will come forward.
Before the Historical Abuse Inquiry sitting began yesterday Kate Walmsley (57) said she had come to give evidence to make sure no boy or girl is ever abused at an institution in the future.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/woman-destroyed-by-abuse-in-nazareth-house-childrens-home-waives-right-to-anonymity-30005770.html 

Philomena: nun too sloppy when it comes to the facts

Steve Coogan's take on the real-life story of a woman whose baby was sold by nuns for adoption is scrupulous and sane, save for a small lapse involving one Sister.
Magdalene Laundries were church institutions in which young women considered guilty of licentiousness, unwed motherhood or prostitution were incarcerated and forced into menial labour.
The last laundry in Ireland closed in 1996.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/11/philomena-historical-accuracy-steve-coogan 

Tuam children's bodies: Catholic Church 'has no records'

A Catholic archbishop in the Republic of Ireland has said the church has no records about the burial of nearly 800 children at a mother and baby home.

The children, aged between two days and nine years, died between 1925 and 1961. The remains of some of the children were in a disused concrete tank at the County Galway home.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27710206 

Orphan’s anguish at hands of nuns at Neerkol facility

WHEN Theresa Whitfield heard the girls' dormitory at the abandoned Neerkol Orphanage had burnt down, she felt relief that verged on sheer delight.

The two-storey brick building was a prison of pain during the "10 horrible years" she spent there in the 1950s.  Theresa (nee Gillon) was one of hundreds of thousands of British children who were shipped to Australia and housed in church-run institutions. 

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/orphans-anguish-at-hands-of-nuns-neerkol-facility/2468602/ 

Neerkol orphanage probe raises systemic abuse issues

Sadistic nuns at a notorious Queensland orphanage dished out abuse in a toxic environment that festered due in part to inadequate government scrutiny, supervision and training, a royal commission has found.
The child sex abuse royal commission last year examined cruel treatment of 13 former residents of St Joseph's Orphanage at Neerkol, near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/neerkol-orphanage-probe-raises-systemic-abuse-issues-20160421-gobv7m.html 

Church reaffirms apology to Qld victims

Church reaffirms apology to Qld victims The bishop of Rockhampton has restated an apology to the victims of abuse at a notorious Queensland orphanage after a royal commission found inadequate training of staff contributed to their pain.

A report by the sex abuse royal commission was released on Thursday after last year examining the St Joseph's Orphanage Neerkol, near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.  The commissioners found punishments administered by nuns and other staff were "cruel and excessive" and contravened regulations.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/church-reaffirms-apology-to-qld-victims/news-story/4f148939a3e503572cd6330d6c90c3c0 

Children under Catholic Care in Germany not exempt from abuse: Beware of nuns

The Protect Your Children Foundation is committed to exposing all the lies and crimes of religion worlwide to alert the nations of the dangers these criminal organizations pose in our communities. For more information, visit: http://vaticancrimes.us and http://www.protegeatushijos.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whIrDuBvD1o 

HIA inquiry: Sister of Nazareth nun denies abuse claims

A nun who worked at a children's home in Londonderry has denied the physical, emotional and psychological abuse of children in her care.

Allegations against the witness, who is in her 70s, and cannot be identified, have been made by seven former pupils at Termonbacca home for boys and girls.  She is the first nun to give evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27218457 

Children Abused + Humiliated in Religious Schools + Orphanages - Ireland Ryan Report

5.20.09. Ryan report. Rape + sexual molestation "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools + orphanages, a report revealed today. The 9 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.
High court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOzu3b7EL94 

From the Netherlands: Catholic nuns also abused children

In the late 1950s, the Roman Catholic Hospital of Our Dear Lady Mother of in Eindhoven was hell for Petra Jorissen. The reason had a name: sister Johanetty. “We will break that little will of yours, break it,” she would squeal, as she forced the remains of a meal Jorissen had just thrown up back down her throat.
Jorissen, now a 59-year-old journalist, recalled how the sister would also come to her room at night. “When I heard the squeaking of her lacquered men’s shoes I immediately knew it was her,” Jorissen said. “Only after she had come to my bed would she turn on her flashlight. By then, she had always carefully closed the curtains surrounding it.” The sister would then fondle her genitals.

http://reform-network.net/?p=4380 

Former Bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly defends Sisters of Nazareth nuns accused of abusing children

The nuns were NOT OVER WROKED... the children did all the work... we worked from 5years old... on there farms... in their laundries... and in their kitchens...  the nuns were paid money for us... and we never saw a penny of it... they were all the same world over... I was in two catholic church orphanages in... Christchurch new Zealand... for 25years... Ann  http://annfreespiritjusticeforabusedchildren.blogspot.co.nz/p/blog-page_20.html

 ============================

The former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, has defended the work of the religious order at the centre of child abuse allegations at two children's homes.

Dr Daly said that the Sisters of Nazareth had been "grossly overworked and underfunded" and had cared for children during extremely difficult periods in Northern Ireland's history.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/former-bishop-of-derry-dr-edward-daly-defends-sisters-of-nazareth-nuns-accused-of-abusing-children-30290327.html 

Nuns 'battered boys stupid' in Derry children's home, victim tells child abuse inquiry

Nuns used to batter boys stupid during daily abuse at a children's home in Londonderry, one victim has claimed.

John Heaney, 55, was caned on the feet by members of the order of the Sisters of Nazareth at St Joseph's in Termonbacca and said he suffered sexual abuse from older boys.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/nuns-battered-boys-stupid-in-derry-childrens-home-victim-tells-child-abuse-inquiry-29912351.html 

Child abuse inquiry: 'we were given a number, my name was 29', survivor of abuse gives evidence

First let's go to Ballarat where the royal commission into child sexual abuse has been hearing extraordinary evidence of brutality in Catholic institutions in the Victorian city.
A survivor of abuse at the St Josephs children's home has told the commission he was sexually abused by priests and physically and mentally abused by nuns at the home.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4239004.htm 

How I helped Philomena track down her son sold by cruel nuns: It's the film about a toddler torn from his mother that is reducing grown men to tears..

I first heard of Philomena Lee at a New Year’s party in 2004, when her daughter Jane approached me to ask for help.  She told me her mother had just revealed a shocking secret – that she, Jane, had a long-lost brother.  Could I, a former journalist, find out more?

Philomena had fallen pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952 when such things were considered shameful and had been sent to Sean Ross Abbey, a convent in Roscrea, County Tipperary, to give birth as a ‘fallen woman’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2495391/How-I-helped-Philomena-track-son-sold-cruel-nuns-Its-film-toddler-torn-mother-reducing-grown-men-tears--REAL-story-haunt-forever.html 

Canada confronts its dark history of abuse in residential schools

Sue Caribou contracts pneumonia once a year, like clockwork. The recurring illness stems from her childhood years at one of Canada’s horrific residential schools. “I was thrown into a cold shower every night, sometimes after being raped”, the frail 50-year-old indigenous mother of six said, matter-of-factly.
Caribou was snatched from her parents’ house in 1972 by the state-funded, church-run Indian Residential School system that brutally attempted to assimilate native children for over a century. She was only seven years old. “We had to stand like soldiers while singing the national anthem, otherwise, we would be beaten up”, she recalled.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/06/canada-dark-of-history-residential-schools 

Flim: An Abuse Scandal With Nuns As Villains

WHEN the Scottish actor and director Peter Mullan was growing up in a working-class Roman Catholic family, goodness was embodied in the clergy. It was the clergy of his pious mother, who contended with eight children and an alcoholic husband.
It was the clergy of the Hollywood films the Mullan children watched on television: ''Boys Town'' with Spencer Tracy, ''Angels With Dirty Faces'' with Pat O'Brien, ''Going My Way'' with Bing Crosby.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/movies/film-an-abuse-scandal-with-nuns-as-villains.html?pagewanted=all 

Northern Ireland child abuse inquiry to hear victims of Derry nuns

Former residents of homes run by Sisters of Nazareth to give evidence at historical institutional abuse inquiry on Monday.  The UK's biggest ever child abuse inquiry will hear evidence on Monday from victims who were abused in two Derry homes run by Catholic nuns.
Based in Banbridge courthouse in Northern Ireland, the historical institutional abuse inquiry will focus on the maltreatment of children in Nazareth children's home and Termonbacca, both run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/27/northern-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-nuns-sisters-nazareth 

I thought I'd seen it all. Then I found nuns' secret grave for 800 babies':

In nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent, I covered stories of mass graves in far-flung locations in Eastern Europe  and Russia. The thought of them has remained lodged in my memory.

But never did I expect to be covering a mass grave from modern times on my own doorstep; I thought Western and Northern Europe was immune from such horrors. Yet that is exactly what I came across in January this year in the small Irish town of Tuam in County Galway, an ugly place with its rundown streets and council estates.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2651484/I-thought-Id-seen-Philomena-And-I-nuns-secret-grave-800-babies-By-Martin-Sixsmith-exposed-Sisters-sold-children-fallen-girls.html 

The stolen children: Abuse scandals, thefts of newborns contribute to increased distrust in Chilean church

Officials in Santiago, Chile, are investigating a series of cases in which newborn babies were purportedly stolen from the poor and given to the rich over many years' time, mostly in the 1970s through the '90s. At least half a dozen Catholic sisters and one of the country's most popular priests have been implicated in these long-hidden crimes. The following is the final article in a three-part series that looks at how this appropriation of children happened and how it stayed secret for so long. Read part one and part two.
At first, René Mestre Sabureau assumed no bad faith on the part of the Mercedarian nuns who brokered his adoption more than 42 years ago.

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/stolen-children-abuse-scandals-thefts-newborns-contribute-increased-distrust 

Mersey man who claims he was abused by nuns as a child slams police for wrongly telling him they were dead

A dad who says he was abused by nuns for five years as a child has condemned police for wrongly telling him all his alleged tormentors were dead.
Terry Daley was desperate to prosecute the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary convent for physical and sexual abuse at a special school in Ormskirk when he was aged 10 to 15. The nuns are now based in Chigwell, Essex.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mersey-man-who-claims-abused-8075313 

Mersey man who claims he was abused by nuns as a child slams police for wrongly telling him they were dead

A dad who says he was abused by nuns for five years as a child has condemned police for wrongly telling him all his alleged tormentors were dead.
Terry Daley was desperate to prosecute the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary convent for physical and sexual abuse at a special school in Ormskirk when he was aged 10 to 15. The nuns are now based in Chigwell, Essex.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mersey-man-who-claims-abused-8075313 

Order of nuns acknowledges abuse

A Catholic religious order has accepted that a notorious paedophile priest abused children while they were in the care of nuns in Northern Ireland, a lawyer told a public inquiry.
Fr Brendan Smyth visited two south Belfast residential homes at the centre of the independent probe into wrongdoing stretching back decades. The serial molester was later convicted of dozens of child abuse charges.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/order-of-nuns-acknowledges-abuse-30882669.html 

Knowing, and not knowing, a Catholic pedophile

A day after my husband died in 1998, Sister Dolores Crosby showed up on my doorstep. She handed me a used paperback. It was “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by the rabbi Harold Kushner.
I considered Crosby a friend, although not a close one. From 1992 to 1999, she was the respected and well-liked principal of Everett's Immaculate Conception & Our Lady of Perpetual Help School where my kids went to school.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160120/BLOG60/160129959 

Senior Catholic nun apologises to victims from Neerkol orphanage in Queensland

A senior Catholic nun has apologised to victims of sexual abuse at St Joseph's Orphanage at Neerkol, near Rockhampton, during her testimony at a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing.

Hundreds of children were beaten, molested and raped at St Joseph's over three decades up until the late 1970s.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-22/catholic-nun-apologises-to-victims-of-orphanage-child-sex-abuse/6411204 

Confronting The Nuns Victim Advocate Draws Attention To Abuse

Landa Mauriello-Vernon kept the secret for more than a decade. She hid it from her parents, even her husband. But when it all came out, she did not hold back.
In a May 2003 lawsuit, she accused her former religion teacher of sexually assaulting her as a student at Sacred Heart Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Hamden. Opting against a Jane Doe disguise in the case that is still pending, she revealed her identity to the world. But she didn't stop there.

http://articles.courant.com/2004-10-03/news/0410030323_1_nuns-survivors-network-abuse 

Oakdale Woman Warns Of Sexual Abuse By Nuns

At first, Mary Dunford's story sounds all too familiar: a life shattered by pain and confusion after being sexually abused by a trusted church figure decades ago.
But Dunford, 63, of Oakdale says it was a nun, not a priest, who abused her while she attended a Roman Catholic boarding school as a teen-ager. Years after she brought the abuse to the attention of the order that ran the school, she is clear about her agenda.

http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/title/oakdale-woman-warns-of-sexual-abuse-by-nuns 

Deaf children were victims of nuns’ abuse

THE CATHOLIC Church’s handling of sex abuse has again been on the front pages of American newspapers after nuns were accused of systematic abuse and the chair of the Church’s abuse watchdog accused bishops of impeding its work.
The Sisters of St Joseph ran the Boston School for the Deaf from 1899 until it closed in 1994. According to a 100-page complaint, filed in a Massachusetts court by Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney with years of experience suing the Church over clerical sex abuse, the nuns carried out sexual assaults on their charges, both boys and girls, over decades. Children are also alleged to have been locked in cupboards for hours, to have had their heads flushed down lavatories, and their hands tied behind their backs for using sign-language, which was discouraged.

http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/22nd-may-2004/28/deaf-children-were-victims-of-nuns-abuse 

Abuse inquiry hears nuns were 'sadistic bullies'

Some Catholic nuns at a children's home in Northern Ireland were sadistic bullies, a former resident has claimed.  A "bleak, harsh and cruel" atmosphere was described by alleged victims at two properties in Belfast run by the Sisters of Nazareth Order, a lawyer told a public inquiry.
More than 100 witnesses from Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge have come forward to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, headed by a former judge.

http://www.careappointments.co.uk/care-news/northern-ireland/item/36298-abuse-inquiry-hears-nuns-were-sadistic-bullies 

Lawsuit Says Plaintiffs Were Sexually Abused By Nuns

For the first time in Kentucky, a lawsuit claiming sexual abuse has been filed against nuns. Six women and one man say they were sodomized and molested by nuns while they were children at a Catholic orphanage. The alleged abuse began when the children were as young as four years old. WAVE 3's Dina Kaplan reports.
The lawsuit filed July 15 contains allegations of horrific abuse from children living at a Catholic orphanage. The attorney for the plaintiffs, Bill McMurry, says the alleged abuse took place in the '50s and '60s at the St. Thomas/St. Vincent Orphanage in Anchorage -- which no longer exists.

http://www.wave3.com/story/2045982/lawsuit-says-plaintiffs-were-sexually-abused-by-nuns 

Man tells story of abuse at Tudhoe Village children's home in 1960s as part of new BBC documentary

A NEW documentary series featuring features men talking about being abused as boys at a County Durham children’s home in the 1960s is launched tonight (Monday, September 7).
The first episode of the BBC’s Inside Out hears the story of Brian Roy, who was at St Mary’s Children Home, in Tudhoe Village, near Spennymoor, from the age of three until 16.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/13649773.Man_tells_story_of_abuse_at_Tudhoe_Village_children_s_home_in_1960s_as_part_of_new_BBC_documentary/ 

Catholic horror: Nuns forced sick children to eat their own vomit

Catholic nuns forced children to eat their own vomit, wear soiled sheets and endure physical assault and humiliation according to testimony given in the UK's biggest ever child abuse inquiry.

Reports issued Jan. 27 by the BBC and other media outlets indicate children at residential homes in Northern Ireland suffered outrageous abuse at the hands of overworked and sadistic Catholic nuns.

http://www.examiner.com/article/catholic-horror-nuns-forced-sick-children-to-eat-their-own-vomit 

NAZARETH NUNS ABUSED US ALL; Family to sue the Poor Sisters who are worth pounds 154m.

THEY should have been safe - yet they were innocents who became victims through no fault of their own. Their mother was dead, their father unable to look after them, and the family turned to nuns for help.
The McGuigans - three brothers and three sisters - spoke yesterday of their trust in the Poor Sisters of Nazareth. But they claim that trust was exploited in the most wicked way when they were systematically abused by nuns and sexually molested by other carers. Sadly, their harrowing story isn't unique.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/NAZARETH+NUNS+ABUSED+US+ALL%3B+Family+to+sue+the+Poor+Sisters+who+are...-a060691760 

Nuns Are “Rats” and “Wimps” for Turning in Accused Priest

“They’re rats and they’re wimps.”  That’s what William Brennan, a lawyer representing a local priest who allegedly abused a 14-year-old in the 1990s while receiving monthly church stipends despite having already been accused of abuse, recently called the nuns who ratted out his client.
The nuns in question, if you can imagine such a thing, turned on the priest, who was living in a church residence with young men and throwing loud parties.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/01/26/nuns-rats-wimps-turning-accused-priest/ 

Irish seek truth behind babes’ unburied bones

In 1975, Frannie Hopkins and Barry Sweeney were playing in an apple orchard just off the Dublin Road where the old St. Mary’s mothers and babies home used to be.  Frannie Hopkins, 12, jumped from a wall and whatever he landed on made a funny noise. Barry Sweeney, 10, followed suit and the hollow they felt made them curious.
They pulled back some weeds and found a concrete slab, pulled back the slab, and to their utter amazement saw a collection of skulls and bones.  “I’d say there were a dozen sets of bones,” Frannie Hopkins told me, standing on the spot. “It was a concrete chamber, a crypt or a tomb or a tank.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/08/23/irish-seek-truth-behind-bones/geIYMiLFznAKVfFtPjqkIN/story.html

Randy Ryder as a baby being cradled in a Malaga hospital in 1971 by the woman who bought him.

Between the 1930’s and 1970’s the Catholic Church and government in Spain allegedly trafficked anywhere from 30,000 to 300,000 children. Up to 300,000 Spanish babies were stolen from their parents and sold for adoption over a period of five decades, a new investigation reveals.
The children were trafficked by a secret network of doctors, nurses, priests and nuns in a widespread practice that began during General Franco’s dictatorship and continued until the early Nineties.

https://ato1952.com/2015/11/13/catholic-nuns-steal-babies/ 

A very Irish sort of hell

Mary Norris lived in one of the barbaric Magdalene laundries, a place for "immoral" Irish girls, and now the subject of a film. She tells Angela Lambert reality was "a thousand times worse" than the film.
"Those places were the Irish gulags for women. When you went inside their doors you left behind your dignity, identity and humanity. We were locked up, had no outside contacts and got no wages, although we worked 10 hours a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year. What else is that but slavery? And to think that they were doing all this in the name of a loving God! I used to tell God I hated him."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/04/1048962932185.html 

Screaming rooms and Banished Babies: The sad history of where I was born

THE ORDER OF the Sacred Heart nuns arrived in Ireland in 1922 within months of the formation of the Irish Free state after the civil war.  They were invited over from England by the newly-formed Irish government to deal with the ‘problem’ of women having babies outside wedlock.
They bought a 200 acre farm in Bessborough, county Cork and began operating a Mother and Baby home. They later expanded and bought Conville House and grounds in Roscrea which they renamed Sean Ross Abbey.

http://www.thejournal.ie/castlepollard-mother-and-baby-home-2040421-Apr2015/ 

Sexual abuse by women religious (nuns and sisters)

For at least eight years, victims of child molesting nuns and members of SNAP have repeatedly urged America’s largest organization of nuns to expose the truth about child sex crimes and cover ups by women religious. But the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) continues to essentially rebuff us and them.
Now more than ever, since they’re being attacked by bishops like we have been (and are being), nuns should be sympathetic to our plight. It grieves us to have to keep prodding them to take long-overdue, simple steps to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. But how can we do otherwise?

http://reform-network.net/?p=22441 

Nuns Pray While Judge Reads Sex Charges

At 10:15 a.m. this morning in Courtroom 1102, Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright read the details of the sex crimes that Father Andrew McCormick is charged with.  The jury, beginning their second day of deliberations, had asked the judge for a read back on the charges.
Judge Bright began with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, which in this case allegedly involved oral sex with a minor. "The slightest degree of penetration is sufficient," the judge told the jury. "He does not have to emit any semen." It took the judge ten minutes to detail the elements of that crime and four other charges against the priest: sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault of a child, and corrupting the morals of a minor.

 

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/03/judge-reads-sex-charges-nuns-keep.html

Catholic nun 'tipped off priest' under investigation for pedophile crimes

A CATHOLIC priest being investigated for pedophile crimes was tipped off by a nun before his arrest, the former investigating policeman and current NSW MP Troy Grant says.
Mr Grant, the Nationals MP for Dubbo in the state's west, said he is prepared to give evidence of this as well as alleged cover-ups by senior clergy to the NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse next month.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/catholic-nun-tipped-off-priest-under-investigation-for-pedophile-crimes/story-e6frg6nf-1226637613206

Two Rwandan Nuns Convicted of War Crimes

Prosecutors demanded life sentences today for four Rwandans convicted of war crimes in the African nation's 1994 genocide, while defense lawyers argued that heavy sentences would harm efforts to reconcile Hutus and Tutsis.

The four — two Benedictine nuns, a factory owner and a university professor — were convicted in a trial that human rights campaigners hailed as a precedent for legal action against suspected war criminals, wherever they may hide. 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80960 

Alleged victim says abuse by nuns 'not being addressed'

Mary C. Dunford, an alleged victim of sexual abuse by a nun, would like more attention to be paid to the victim-survivors of abuse by women religious.
"I believe there are a number of reasons why abuse by nuns is not in the public eye and not being addressed. Taboos against believing female abuse exists and, most especially, female abuse by nuns; and statutes of limitation laws which, after brief period of time, keep victims from bringing charges. Typically victims don't understand that they were abused, nor do they realize the extent of the damage until well into adulthood — different for each victim. The Catholic Church actively lobbies against any change in these laws.

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/060421

Sexaul Abused by NUNS

I just received a copy of Steve's message about the nuns, passed on by Bob Hoatson.  I want to support their concerns and certainly the concerns of SNAP.  I don't find VOTF's support of the nuns to be a "slap in the face"  since I don't believe it was intended to be that.  However I do agree that for the many, many victims of sexual and physical abuse by nuns, the attention being paid to the Vatican investigation and the sympathy extended to the nuns can be infuriating in light of the revelations of widespread abuse.  
I agree with your support of the nuns in general because I am convinced the Vatican inquisition has nothing to do with truth and everything to do with paranoid perceptions of someone taking their power from them.  Its control!  In some ways it is as bizarre and perverse as Benedict XVI's so-called "Year for Priests."  In that case he held up as a model St. John Vianney.  If you have ever read an honest biography of the patron of parish priests you might get the impression that he was psychotic with a severely twisted concept of priesthood.  The pope and the rest of his collection in the Vatican are obviously living in a time-warp.

http://www.awrsipe.com/Doyle/2009/sexual_abuse_by_nuns.htm 

Claims of gang rape, beatings and sexual assault with a broom handle at house of horrors orphanage...

 I had an email from a friend... a fellow survivor of abuse by a priest...
======================================================
I just wanted to contact you to say that hopefully, if anyone ever doubted your story about your experience in the orphanage, after hearing the harrowing testimonies of the people who went through Neerkol, I suspect more people will finally start to realise that everything you have ever told us is true.

All I could think of while listening is "this is the same as what Ann has said - it's all the same: The nuns horrific beatings and perverse attitudes to children, the abusive priests. I hope in a way that you haven't been listening as it must be absolutely horrendous to have to hear such things again. But I see you triumphing slowly but surely: You can be very proud of yourself for helping to reveal the horrors that occurred.

You were one of the pioneers to all this - without people like you none of this would be happening. From a fellow Survivor... Steven Australia

 ============================

Victims at an Australian orphanage have told of the horrific abuse they suffered at the hands of the priests and nuns who ran the institution from claims of being raped by a broom handle to being forced to drink their own urine. 

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Rockhampton has also heard a woman was gang raped by employees and then had a child at 14 years of age.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3040028/The-horrific-orphanage-kids-kids-raped-forced-confess-sin-Horrifying-accounts-child-abuse-Catholic-community-Rockhampton-given-royal-commission.html 

Child sex abuse inquiry: Girl raped at an orphanage told at birth she was 'having the devil taken out'

A teenager who was raped at a Queensland orphanage and fell pregnant was told by nuns she had the devil inside her, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

The woman, who gave evidence under the name AYL, was raped when she was 14 by a worker at St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage, near Rockhampton, in 1965.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-15/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-witness-who-was-raped-baby-taken/6395858?section=qld 

Abuse Scuttled Hopes, Says Neerkol Inmate; Priests and Nuns Practised Cruelty on Orphaned Generations

THERE are some people who refuse to believe that hundreds of children, possibly thousands, were physically and sexually abused by priests and nuns at a children's home near Rockhampton.
But Garnett Williams, who spent five years at St Joseph's Orphanage at Neerkol, says he knows the full horror of what occurred behind its doors and shutters.

https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-210649748/abuse-scuttled-hopes-says-neerkol-inmate-priests 

Senior nun's response to child abuse allegations lacked compassion: Royal Commission

MARK COLVIN: A senior nun has admitted to the child abuse Royal Commission that her response to allegations of abuse at the St Joseph's Orphanage Neerkol was inadequate and "lacked compassion".
Sister Berneice Loch leads the Sisters of Mercy order, which ran the institution near Rockhampton for more than a century. She denied concealing evidence of child abuse which occurred between the 1940s and ‘70s.   But she said a former Queensland MP's raising of the allegations in state parliament in 1996 was "wrong and sensational".

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4220858.htm

Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry: Neerkol Orphanage nuns ‘nervous’ about meeting victims

The nuns are not Nervous of meeting the survivors-victims... the nuns are nervous of the TRUTH... which the survivors are at long last... telling the world... yes... women and nuns... raped and abused children... boys and girls... in their hellhole... catholic church orphanages worldwide... Ann

 ==========================

NUNS accused of abusing children at a notorious Queensland orphanage refused to meet the victims as adults because they feared not remembering what happened, a national inquiry has heard.
Up to five of the Sister of Mercy nuns alleged to have abused children at Neerkol Orphanage were still alive in the 1990s, but many were “anxious and nervous” about meeting victims.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/child-sexual-abuse-inquiry-neerkol-orphanage-nuns-nervous-about-meeting-victims/news-story/b83d53c6cc5438fc3a36f3fa5572176e 

Child abuse royal commission: Victims from former girls home confront nuns caring for dying bishop

They call themselves "Nazzie girls" — children who ended up in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth girls home in Ballarat in the 1950s and 1960s.

Gabrielle Short does not hesitate when she is asked to summarise her childhood here. "Ninety-five per cent hell, torture, abuse, fear, terror," she says. In the early 1960s, paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was their chaplain.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-25/royal-commission-abuse-victims-confront-nuns-caring-for-bishop/7197812 

A Nun's Testimony by Sister Charlotte Keckler

I was reared in a devout Roman Catholic home and, although our home contained many religious items, we never had a Bible there. Consequently, I never heard of God's wonderful plan of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus. No one ever explained to me that I only had to invite Him into my heart and ask Him to save me from all my sins to be born again (Revelation 3:20). Instead, I only knew what I was taught in the catechisms and in the institution which we attended faithfully. 
I had a deep love and devotion to the God I did not really know personally and I yearned to give my life to Him completely. According to the teaching I received, the way to do this was to become a nun and enter a convent. My parish priest pressed this idea on me as did the nuns who taught in my parochial school. 

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/nun.htm 

An Irish Catholic orphanage hid the bodies of 800 children

They have no headstones, no coffins. No memory boxes of toys and photographs. There are nearly eight hundred of them – and counting. They are the 796 babies and young children aged between two days and nine years whose grave, “filled to the brim with tiny bones and skulls,” was found last week in an unmarked site that once housed a septic tank near a County Galway home for unwed mothers.
Local death records show that the children, mostly babies and toddlers, died during the years The Home, run by the Bon Secours Sisters, was in operation — between 1925 and 1961. The causes of death listed include “sicknesses, diseases, deformities and premature births.” A full tally of the bodies has not yet been made, and it’s unknown yet if investigators will find more bodies than the ones whose deaths were recorded.

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/04/an_irish_catholic_orphanage_hid_the_bodies_of_800_children/ 

4 decades after abuse, former nun faces past

Mary Dispenza was 7 when her parish priest assaulted her in the auditorium of the Catholic school she attended in East Los Angeles. During the rape, her mother, who worked in the parish, chatted with kitchen workers in the next room.
In time, Dispenza became a nun and teacher at her old school, St. Alphonsus, often meeting with students in the auditorium where she was molested. It took 43 years before Dispenza allowed herself to release repressed memories and confront what had happened when she was abused by George Neville Rucker, who has been accused of molesting 38 girls.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/4-decades-after-abuse-former-nun-faces-past/ 

Abuse victim’s plea to find son she gave birth to at age of 12

A woman who claims she is the survivor of a paedophile ring has appealed for help in tracing the son she gave birth to when she was just 12 years old.
The woman identifies herself only as ‘Amy’, because she says her case is currently the subject of a Garda investigation.  She told 96FM’s Opinion Line yesterday that she is the survivor of a Dublin paedophile ring of six men and one woman and that she became pregnant in 2011.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/abuse-victims-plea-to-find-son-she-gave-birth-to-at-age-of-12-392022.html

Stories of residential school abuse can be destroyed after 15 years: court

Survivors of Canada's notorious residential school system have the right to see their stories archived if they wish, but their accounts must otherwise be destroyed in 15 years, Ontario's top court ruled in a split decision Monday.

At issue are documents related to compensation claims made by as many as 30,000 survivors of Indian residential schools -- many heart-rending accounts of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.  Compensation claimants never surrendered control of their stories, the Appeal Court said.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/stories-of-residential-school-abuse-can-be-destroyed-after-15-years-court-1.2844827 

Taoiseach stops short of apologising for Magdalene Laundries, angering survivors

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has stopped short of apologising for the State’s involvement in the Magdalene Laundries. In a heated exchange in the Dáil this afternoon, the Taoiseach repeatedly said he was sorry that the stigma attached to the women in the laundries was not removed before now.
He also apologised for the length of time it had taken for a government to carry out a report into the institutions and said he was sorry that the women lived “in that kind of environment”.

http://www.thejournal.ie/enda-kenny-magdalene-laundries-apology-783527-Feb2013/ 

Justice for daughters of the laundries

On Tuesday a report by Martin McAleese may finally help to write the story of State involvement in the Magdalen institutions, a shameful chapter in Ireland’s history So much of the story about the Magdalen laundries centres on names; on identities lost, abandoned or forgotten. Thousands of girls and young women went through their doors during two centuries. Each had her Christian name changed by the nuns, her surname unused.
On her marriage to an English soldier after she had fled Ireland, Margaret McCarthy changed her surname to that of her husband, Frederick Permaul.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/justice-for-daughters-of-the-laundries-1.1253895 

The Magdalene Laundries explained

What were the Magdalene Laundries?  Institutions where women were sent if they were regarded as "fallen women".

Who was sent there?  The women who were committed to these homes included women who conceived out of wed lock, wards of state and so-called 'promiscuous and flirtatious' women.  Parents, social workers, judges, priests and members of the Gardai could recommend a woman to be sent to these workhouses. 

http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/the-magdalene-laundries-explained.html

Ireland apologises for 'slave labour' at Magdalene Laundries

The Irish State has finally said sorry to 10,000 women and girls incarcerated in Catholic Church-run laundries where they were treated as virtual slaves. Taoiseach Enda Kenny was forced into issuing a fulsome apology on Tuesday evening to those held in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland.
The apology in the Dáil (Irish parliament) came about two weeks after a damning 1,000-plus page report was released detailing the way women and girls were maltreated inside the nun-controlled laundries.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/19/ireland-apologises-slave-labour-magdalene-laundries 

Magdalene Laundries in Ireland

A documentary following several women who spent their lives in Magdalene Laundries can be found here: Sex in a Cold Climate. This documentary came out in 2003 and helped bring to light many of the hidden atrocities which had occurred in the Magdalene asylums.
Since the formation of the Irish state in 1922, the Catholic Church has had an immense influence in shaping government policy and daily life. Even before Irish Independence, the Church held a tight control over Irish morality and was considered above criticism. Because the Irish schooling system was run by the Catholic Church, their influence was pervasive in shaping people's education. The documentary, Sex in a Cold Climate (2003), describes the enormous extent to which sexuality was tied to sin: “Sex outside marriage was not only objectionable, but like murder, a mortal sin. And women who fell under suspicion were condemned by both the community and church as 'fallen women.'” As a result, heavy emphasis on chastity was prominent when it came to the education of females. There were cited cases of extreme measures being used to keep women from sexual sin, such as nuns cutting the hair off of attractive girls, making them wear clothing that strapped down their breasts and informing them that sexual contact with a man was shameful.

http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/magdalene-laundries-ireland

Nuns Pray While Judge Reads Sex Charges

At 10:15 a.m. this morning in Courtroom 1102, Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright read the details of the sex crimes that Father Andrew McCormick is charged with.  The jury, beginning their second day of deliberations, had asked the judge for a read back on the charges.
Judge Bright began with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, which in this case allegedly involved oral sex with a minor. "The slightest degree of penetration is sufficient," the judge told the jury. "He does not have to emit any semen." It took the judge ten minutes to detail the elements of that crime and four other charges against the priest: sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault of a child, and corrupting the morals of a minor.

 

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/03/judge-reads-sex-charges-nuns-keep.html

I kept my head hung down so as to not look at a nun for fear of being belted again.

My name is Wendy Eldridge At the age of 6 I was removed from my parents care and I was placed at a catholic church orphanage. I was alone and absolutely terrified My first experience with abuse began a short time after I had arrived, one of the girls had uttered the word 'shut up', I looked up at the nun who was standing nearby who then forcibly removed me from the dining room and proceeded to hit me on both hands with the handle of the brush.
My hands were sore, blue and swollen for days. From that day on, I kept my head hung down so as to not look at a nun for fear of being belted again. I was punished for being a 'bedwetter', the wet sheets were rubbed into my face and when I attended class, those who had wet the bed had to stand beside the desk where the nun would poke you with a stick and call you names.

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/fcdc/inquiries/57th/Child_Abuse_Inquiry/Submissions/Wendy_Dyckhoff.pdf 

70 Convent slave laundries? Magdalen asylums in Australia

A staple of extreme Protestant propaganda in the first half of the twentieth century was the accusation of ‘convent slave laundries’. Anti-Catholic organs like The Watchman and The Rock regularly alleged extremely harsh conditions in Roman Catholic convent laundries and reported stories of abductions into them and escapes
1 In Ireland, the scandal of Magdalen laundries has been the subject of extensive official inquiri Allegations of widespread near-slave conditions and harsh punishments turned out to be substantially true. 3 The Irish state has apologized, 4 memoirs have been written, compensation paid, a movie made. 5 Something similar occurred in England.

http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/magdalen.pdf 

Child sex abuse inquiry: Former Neerkol resident 'received a bullet in the mail' after reporting child abuse at orphanage

And this is what happens if you dare... to tell about the abuse and rape by women and nuns... I received hate mails... and emails... as well as phone calls... spate upon at the mediation...  crutches thrown at me... because I was the only person... to disagreed... by putting by hand up... when we were asked to... if we agreed or disagreed... about what was said at that time... that was when the crutch was thrown at me... by one of the women... in front of every body... and they all just sat there... I stood my ground... from that day... I was by myself all over again... just like I was... when I was a child... it hurts... it bloody hurts... must go... Ann

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A man who reported sexual abuse at St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage received death threats after talking to police, including a bullet in his mailbox, the royal commission into child abuse hears.
A man who reported sexual abuse at St Joseph's Neerkol Orphanage received death threats after talking to police, including a bullet in his mailbox, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

http://www.australiaplus.com/international/2015-04-16/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-former-neerkol-resident-received-a-bullet-in-the-mail-after-reporting-child-/1437684

How Childhood Trauma Created Christian Myth— And Why It Matters to Atheists

Amid heated debate about religion, a simple fact with profound implications has gone almost entirely unnoticed: that the myths underlying some of the most widespread religions portray themes related to childhood corporal punishment, abandonment, and neglect. Perhaps the presence of such themes should not be surprising, given that the world’s major religions arose from historical contexts where abusive and traumatizing childrearing practices were a cultural norm. 
Of the religions widely practiced today, the traumatic themes are most transparent, pervasive, and close to the surface in the myths of Christianity—hence the focus of this article. To begin, we’ll briefly review evidence pertaining to childhood corporal punishment in the West, with an emphasis on the ancient world in which Christianity arose. We’ll then explore how themes of childhood trauma are reflected in Christian myth. At the end, I’ll offer my thoughts about how these ideas may be of particular value to those who embrace atheism, rationalism, and humanism.

https://richarddawkins.net/2016/03/how-childhood-trauma-created-christian-myth-and-why-it-matters-to-atheists/