Good Shepherd Convent purchased

A Dundalk firm whose directors are linked to major Northern Ireland and UK developers McAleer & Rushe has emerged as the buyer of the Good Shepherd Convent in Sunday’s Well, above Cork city. Moneda Development was set up earlier this year, and directors include Eamonn Laverty and James Higgins of McAleer & Rushe, who specialise in design and build, asset management, construction and multi-use projects.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/property/good-shepherd-convent-purchased-424446.html 

Nun charged with abuse She is accused of molesting two male students 40 years ago

A 78-year-old nun who was principal of a grade school at a south side Milwaukee parish in the 1960s was charged Tuesday with having repeated sexual contact with two boys who attended the school.
Norma Giannini can be prosecuted for the allegations 40 years later because she didn't remain in Wisconsin long enough for the six-year statute of limitations then in place to elapse, according to a criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Giannini moved to Illinois in 1970, the complaint states.

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29182054.html 

Canadian churches still overcoming guilt about residential schools

Downtown Vancouver’s churches are coming together for a rare joint service and other special observances on Sunday to show their commitment to reconciling with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.
Clergy from the United, Anglican, Catholic, Baptist and Presbyterian churches are co-operating in the daylong event, which includes a combined service at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church, a sacred fire, a street fair in the Sheraton Wall Centre courtyard, ecumenical prayers at First Baptist Church and other public rituals.

http://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/canadian-churches-still-overcoming-guilt-about-residential-schools 

Residential School Blues

The Canadian government is launching a five-year-long Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the pain and dysfunction caused by the country’s federally funded, church-run aboriginal residential schools.

Virtually all the residential schools closed more than 35 years ago. The government has apologized many times and is right now in the midst of handing out billions of dollars in compensation to aboriginal survivors, especially those abused, at the boarding schools. 

http://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/residential-school-blues 

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.

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

SNAP Survivors' Network > Sexual or Physical or Emotional Abuse by NUNS > nuns

Hello: I just found this site and wanted to make a comment.I am a survivor of parochial school south of Boston,Mass. The abuse by the Sisters of St.Joseph were emotional and humiliating. Not sexual. Only one of all the 9 years I suffered in these parochial school was a decent person and a nun.This has haunted me all my lifetime of how the children were treated in their early school years. Every day was FEAR when we went to school. I just want to mention one particular incident (one of many but this stands out).

http://snapsurvivorsnetwork.yuku.com/topic/3174/nuns?page=3#.WBGIwDU1eUk 

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.

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

Why do Catholics call non Catholics heathens when their Nuns abused children?

I am not a Nun and I haven't abused children. Apparently it got worse under Independence, so surly you were better off in the British empire where the English could keep a close eye on your religious perverts

 

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130207113130AA9UQxt 

Tuam Home vigil

A candlelight vigil in memory of residents of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home will take place next Wednesday, 2 November, All Souls Day.
The vigil will begin at 7pm at the site of the unofficial burial grounds on the Dublin Road in Tuam and proceed to the Town Square. The vigil, organisers say, follows in the footsteps of the “home children”.
Research by Tuam historian Catherine Corless indicates that the remains of 796 children, most of them infants, may be buried at the site. A preliminary site excavation by a team of specialist archaeologists, requested by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, is ongoing and expected to be complete by mid-November.

http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/topics/articles/2016/10/26/4129043-tuam-home-vigil/ 

They Promised Heaven, But Led Me To Hell

I was conceived out of wedlock, because of my mother being raped I was just two and a half months old when I was taken from my mother’s arms, by the catholic church then placed in the care of one of their Catholic orphanage. From the beginning, I was taught that my mother was sinful and that I would be too unless the devil was beaten from my soul. I was sexual abused in the nursery from a tiny young girl of eighteen months old by three lady workers for four years.

My childhood abuse in the orphanage, is New Zealand’s shameful, dirty secret of physical, mental, verbal and sexual abuse of innocent children by nuns, lay staff, the older girls and the priest and bullying at two orphanages in Christchurch. From the age of five years old I was made to work on their farm and later on in their kitchen and laundries, both at Mount Magdala – St. Joseph Girls Orphanage and Nazareth House.

http://annfreespiritnunsabusedchildren.blogspot.co.nz/p/they-promised-heaven-but-led-me-to-hell.html

Adoption needs overhaul or abandoning say people adopted as children

Adults who were adopted as children say, even if their parents were wonderful and loving, they have lifelong scars from being separated from their mothers, which has led some to say adoption needs to be completely overhauled or abandoned altogether.

 Transcript LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The benefits of inter-country adoption seem obvious when a child from the developing world is given a chance at a better life.
It's had widespread celebrity endorsement of course, with people like Angelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett adopting overseas, and even the Prime Minister has promised to fast-track the inter-country adoption process.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4249194.htm

Housemaster abused boys at orphanage run by 'nuns and priests from Hell'

In New Zealand catholic church orphanages... the nuns use to call out the girls... who were told to go and see the priest... many a time they would come back crying... and telling the other girls that they had... just being raped by a priest... I know of a man who 's mother was raped by a priest... when she was 15years old... his name was Peter... and I meet him in 1997...

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

 A housemaster has been found to have abused children decades ago at a Catholic orphanage, run by the "nuns and priests from Hell".

James McCann, 80, who worked at the St Francis Boys' Home, Shefford, Bedfordshire, in the 1960s, was found unfit to plea due to ill health.  But a trial of the facts found 42 of 50 charges of physical and sexual assaults on 25 boys to be proven.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-37552277 

Head of Catholic Church in Ireland insults and belittles abuse survivors during reconciliation meeting.

Child abuse survivors have said they felt so “belittled” during a meeting with the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, they almost walked out. They told a Stormont committee that Archbishop Eamon Martin had given the impression that he felt the church was now the victim.

Jon McCourt and Margaret McGuckian also claimed the Executive Office had let victims down by failing to establish a compensation scheme following the end of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).

https://occupythevatican.com/2016/10/11/head-of-catholic-church-in-ireland-insults-and-belittles-abuse-survivors-during-reconciliation-meeting/ 

Magdalene Laundries Contacts

What Can I Do? Contacts for Government, Church and Media Government/Departmental Contacts Home Who We Are What We Do Public Disclosure News Press Releases Gallery Media Links What Can I Do? Magdalene Name Project Magdalene Oral History Project Newsletters Online Resources Justice for Magdalenes What Can I Do? Contacts for Government, Church and Media Government/Departmental Contacts The commission was prompted back in July by the ABC's Four Corners program, which detailed years of abuse in youth detention centres.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-11/youth-justice-royal-commission-nt-live-blog/7917668 

Sisters of Nazareth accused of impeding historic sex abuse investigation

There is no end to the evilness of these nuns...

We are the truth;
We have our voice;
We will not go away;
We will fight to the end;
We stand as one of many;
We will be silent no more;
We have broken our silence;
We have God as our witness;
We live and stand by the truth;
We have the right to protection;

Copyrights@AnnThompson

 ===========================

 A religious order in Melbourne has been accused of impeding an investigation into historic sex abuse at a former children's home.

Barry Potocic, 54, has spent thirty years trying to identify the nun who he says used him as a sex toy at the age of eight, at Nazareth House in Camberwell.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-23/sisters-of-nazareth-accused-of-impeding-sex-abuse-investigation/7050832 

Ex-NH nun, accused of molesting, is “outed” in CT

Two years ago, the NH Attorney General publicly disclosed a credible child sex abuse allegation against a Catholic nun, Patricia Long. Since then, Long has moved twice, changed her name, her denomination, and her job title, and been hired by another church and has access to more unsuspecting families. Now, Long has been exposed in Connecticut, where she worked for at least four years recently as a Protestant minister.
New Hampshire Catholic Bishop John McCormack has had at least two years to warn his flock about Long and reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered her crimes. But as best we can tell, he’s done nothing. Let’s hope he will now finally stop talking about protecting kids and actually do something to protect kids. We suggest he start by taking two simple, proven, helpful steps:

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2011_statements/032911_ex_nh_nun_accused_of_molesting_is_outed_in_ct.htm 

Former nun speaks out on church abuse claims

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is an issue with the video for this story that will be rectified on Monday 10 December, apologies for any inconvenience.
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: Among the litany of accusations that led to the recent announcement of a Royal commission into the institutional child sex abuse, none have been more shocking than those surrounding the Catholic order St John of God. For 40 years boys placed in the order's care were molested, raped and physically assaulted. The story has hit the headlines this week with the arrest in New Zealand of a former brother accused of molesting 35 children in a home for intellectually disabled boys. Tonight a former nun who worked for the order speaks out about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks. In a moment I'll be joined by the head of the order, Brother Timothy Graham, but first this report by Lisa Whitehead.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-10/former-nun-speaks-out-on-church-abuse-claims/4419208

Royal commission: Child abuse victims share their stories in private hearings

In informal hearing rooms set up by the child sex abuse royal commission, victims are telling their stories of abuse in private. Around 1,500 people nationwide have so far spoken about what happened to them. More than 1,000 others are on a ballooning waiting list, which grows by an extra 40 people each week.

Some are in their 80s and 90s, and many have carried their secrets for a lifetime. Their stories are not treated as legal evidence, their claims are not tested - as in a court of law. But they are believed and their trauma acknowledged.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-09/child-abuse-victims-share-their-stories-in-private-hearings/5438966 

Home»Property Good Shepherd Convent purchased

A Dundalk firm whose directors are linked to major Northern Ireland and UK developers McAleer & Rushe has emerged as the buyer of the Good Shepherd Convent in Sunday’s Well, above Cork city. Moneda Development was set up earlier this year, and directors include Eamonn Laverty and James Higgins of McAleer & Rushe, who specialise in design and build, asset management, construction and multi-use projects.
The high-profile convent site went to market earlier this year as part of a break up of the €503m Project Clear/Ulster Bank portfolio sell off, which had been acquired by Cairn Homes and Lone Star. Also included in the c €30m Cork sell-on of Project Clear assets was lands at Castletreasure, Douglas, guiding up to €27m, and a site at Dennehys Cross near UCC. All three had been owned/previously acquired by the Frinailla Group.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/property/good-shepherd-convent-purchased-424446.html

Disband the Artane Band, Dublin

Historical child abuse in State sponsored religious run residential institutions.
The Artane Band is the last remaining link to the horrors that took place in Artane Industrial School, Dublin - run by the Christian Brothers. The band's continuous existence is a reactivation and trigger for those of us who suffered horrendous ordeals at the hands of the Christian Brother paedophiles who ran many of the Industrial schools.
The present band continues to airbrush out its past and to deny its origins within the industrial school system, even though, its uniform and insignia are directly connected and originated in the Artane Industrial School for boys.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/521/081/722/disband-the-artane-band-dublin/?taf_id=29505365&cid=fb_na 

How two Irish sisters beat a Kafkaesque system

When she was 12, Ena Ronayne made a call from a public telephone box to the Cork maternity hospital where she thought she had been born. It was the wrong place.
About an hour's drive away, in the town of Clonmel, her younger sister, Edel, was peppering her adopted mother with questions about her biological family. Neither knew the other existed. It would be 35 years before they met.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ireland-adoption-system-idUSBREA1Q1HY20140227 

Adopted children fight Irish state secrecy to find parents

Catherine Droogan turns 40 this year. That's one of the few personal details she can be sure of.
Adopted at four weeks from a convent in eastern Ireland, Droogan doesn't know who her parents were or where she was born. She is not even certain who actually named her Catherine.Lying on her kitchen table in the Northern Ireland town of Omagh is a one-page document that the state has given her about her parents, containing what's known as "non-identifying information". It took her a year to get from Ireland's health service and tells her that her father was a blue-eyed factory worker in his early 20s, and her mother was a catering assistant who liked to read and dance. There are no names or addresses.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ireland-adoption-insight-idUSBREA1Q1H920140227 

'I'm at my wit's end...I feel so alone. I can find nobody belonging to me,' says woman seeking birth cert

An emotional interview with a woman who grew up in a Longford convent and cannot track down her own birth certificate has touched people around the country.
Ann, speaking to Joe Duffy's Liveline today, told of her unsuccessful efforts to secure a birth certificate and how it means she cannot access some basic services.

An emotional interview with a woman who grew up in a Longford convent and cannot track down her own birth certificate has touched people around the country. Ann, speaking to Joe Duffy's Liveline today, told of her unsuccessful efforts to secure a birth certificate and how it means she cannot access some basic services. 

Shortfall in contribution to compensation scheme damages Catholic Church’s authority

Religious congregations and the State must resolve payment issue. What is to be done? The 18 religious congregations which managed residential institutions where children were abused into the 1970s refuse to pay a half of costs in resulting compensation. Successive Governments have held such costs should be shared 50:50, with support across the Dáil. 

The final bill is expected to be around €1.5 billion, involving €1.25 billion compensation paid by the Redress Board to more than 15,000 survivors. Contributions offered by the congregations to date, under the 2002 Indemnity Agreement and subsequent to the 2009 Ryan Report, amount to €480 million. The shortfall on the 50 per cent target is €245 million. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/shortfall-in-contribution-to-compensation-scheme-damages-catholic-church-s-authority-1.2813775 

‘No specific plans’ for excavations on the grounds of Mother and Baby Homes

There are “no specific plans” to carry out excavations on the grounds of other Mother and Baby Homes yet, as a preliminary excavation was approved for a site where almost 800 children from the Tuam Mother and Baby Home are reportedly buried.
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission said work will begin on the site from today and continue for approximately five weeks. It will be led by a team of specialist archaeologists under a forensic archaeologist, with the full co-operation of gardaí.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/no-specific-plans-for-excavations-on-the-grounds-of-mother-and-baby-homes-423705.html 

Former nun grapples with history of abuse Eileen Rhoads prays for forgiveness for molesting students for years. Her victims say they can't forget.

Eileen Rhoads, a former nun turned convicted sex offender, can't erase the pain she left behind. All she can do is pray. "If I could bring every one of those kids here now," said Rhoads, 66, weeping as she sat beneath a small wooden cross in her Drexel Hill home, "I would get on my knees and beg their forgiveness."
Her victims say they can't forget or forgive. Not her - and not the church that they say failed to stop her. Warned that Rhoads was "very disturbed," church leaders released her from her nun's vows in the early 1970s - but hired her as a teacher at a Catholic school, where she found more victims.

http://articles.philly.com/2005-09-14/news/25428138_1_nun-catholic-schools-forgiveness 

Sex Abuse in the Church: Girls Also Victimized

We thought we knew the script in the Catholic-priest sex-abuse scandal. Both the victims and the perpetrators were male. But a recent story in The New York Timesseemed to suggest that this scenario ignored a whole segment of victims: young girls. The Times reported on a Catholic priest who was permitted to move to India instead of facing accusations of molesting two Minnesota girls. Meanwhile, Slate's June Thomas asked, "Is anyone else wondering if young women have been left out of this story, and if there's some agenda that's driving that absence?" a question that Andrew Sullivan’s readers have also been discussing. (Slate and NEWSWEEK are both owned by The Washington Post Company.)

http://www.newsweek.com/sex-abuse-church-girls-also-victimized-70741 

A letter from a victim of nun abuse

I received the following e-mail letter from Mary Dunford of Eagan, Minn.
"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

Religion and Child Abuse

I was very distressed at seeing this topic censored in GD, because I believe child abuse in every form is a very serious problem, and that many methods that are used to indoctrinate children into religion are blatant acts of cruelty. I was born LGBT, and was aware of my orientation at a very early age. I was also a very curious child, and not prone to unquestionably believing everything adults told me. I was sent to a Catholic School when I was 4 years old, and was immediately subjected to intense brainwashing efforts by nuns and priests, reinforced by repeated sporadic physical abuse, for the purpose of indoctrinating me into the realm of existence commanded me by Catholic dogma.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/121877147

In Donnybrook, Future of Crumbling Magdalene Laundry Is Uncertain

When she arrived at the Donnybrook laundry, Sara was given a number and told to remember it. The number 100. This was her new identity.
In her survivor testimony for Justice for Magdalenes’ (JFM’s) submission to the Inter-Departmental Committee set up to investigate state involvement in the Magdalene laundries, Sara W described the conditions in the Donnybrook laundry between 1954 and 1956, before she was moved to another Magdalene laundry, in Cork.

http://www.dublininquirer.com/2016/03/09/in-donnybrook-future-of-crumbling-magdalene-laundry-is-uncertain/

My 3 Years As a Child Slave in a Magdalene Laundry Run by Sadistic Nuns

I read this story and it stands out as a mirror of... what most of us innocent children of the catholic church orphanages... and homes were put through... by nuns and priest... boys and girls alike... Ann

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

FORCED into hard labour at the tender age of 14, Kathleen Legg’s only crime was being born out of wedlock.

The Magdalene Laundries seemed the perfect solution to hide her “shameful secret”.
Kathleen, now 77, was sent to St Mary’s Training School, Stanhope Street, Dublin, where she lived and worked in horrific conditions.  Although it happened more than 60 years ago, she still can’t erase her memories of life in the laundry.

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/09/my-3-years-as-a-child-slave-in-a-magdalene-laundry-run-by-sadistic-nuns/ 

Excavation to take place at site of alleged mass grave at Tuam

AN EXCAVATION WILL be carried out on the site of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.
The excavation will take place following allegations about the deaths of 800 babies and the manner in which they were buried at the home, which came to light two years ago. The excavation was ordered by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, which was set up following the allegations in July 2016.

http://www.thejournal.ie/mother-and-baby-excavation-3004183-Sep2016/?utm_source=shortlink