Cruel and excessive': Commission finds that nuns subjected children to abusive treatment including public floggings

Former residents at a Queensland orphanage would have urine soaked towels placed on their heads and be publicly flogged, a royal commission has found.

Last year, the child sex abuse royal commission investigated the 'cruel and excessive' treatment of 13 residents at St Joseph's Orphanage at Neerkol, near Rockhampton between 1940 and 1975.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3552201/Royal-commission-nuns-Queensland-orphanage-abused-residents.html 

MO - Sex abuse victims to protest outside nuns’ conference

As hundreds of American Catholic nuns meeting this week in St. Louis, clergy sex abuse victims will protest outside urging them to address the under-reported issue of clergy sex crimes and cover ups by nuns.
A nationwide self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is upset with the main organization of nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). SNAP says the LCWR “refuses to take any real steps to heal the wounded or protect the vulnerable.”

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mo_sex_abuse_victims_to_protest_outside_nuns_conference 

Ireland finally says sorry to the 10,000 'Magdalene Sister slaves' of its Catholic workhouses who were locked up and brutalised by nuns

Women who had their childhoods ‘stolen away’, locked up in Catholic-run workhouses received a qualified apology from the Irish government yesterday.

Over a period of 70 years, an estimated 10,000 were sent to the ‘Magdalene laundries’ to carry out unpaid manual labour under the supervision of nuns. Some were sent because they were the children of unmarried mothers, others for crimes as minor as not paying a train ticket.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2273961/Ireland-says-sorry-10-000-women-slaves-Catholic-workhouses-locked-brutalised-nuns.html 

Praying for Peace Two Cloistered Nuns Reach out with the Help of Technology to Help Victims of Priest Abuse

They love the Catholic Church. But they also ache for victims hurt by it. Mother Veronica Sweeney and Sister Angela Ferry, diocesan nuns of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, have opened up their cloistered lives to reach victims of sexual abuse and the victims' families through the Internet and e-mail.
"People say it's a gay issue. It's not," Ferry said. "Gay men molesting boys, heterosexual men abusing girls, nuns abusing children: They're all abusing the vulnerable." "Abuse continues when people do not listen to you," Sweeney said.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_01_06/2004_02_28_Hunter_PrayingFor.htm 

Protecting Children from the Church’s Abuse Of Power

The world continues to watch with genuine interest as the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church parades masks of contrition before the media, in an effort to convince the faithful that the Church has turned the corner on the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
On Nov. 19, a gathering of Cardinals from every corner of the Church’s influence will convene in Rome at the request of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI. This meeting of Cardinals will include a discussion about the Vatican’s response to sexually abusive priests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-f-mcmurry/institutional-secrecy-is-_b_785546.html 

Irish nuns 'forced children to eat their own vomit and put soiled bedsheets on their heads as punishment at care homes'

Children were forced to eat their own vomit and put soiled bedsheets on their heads as punishment at care homes run by nuns, the largest public inquiry into institutional child abuse was told.

The investigation into the behaviour of Catholic nuns from the Sisters of Nazareth children's homes in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, heard children were also forced to bathe in disinfectant and were beaten for wetting the bed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547145/Nuns-forced-children-eat-vomit-soiled-bedsheets-heads-punishment-care-homes-largest-inquiry-institutional-child-abuse-told.html 

Ireland finally admits state collusion in Magdalene Laundry system

Taoiseach Enda Kenny fails to formally apologise for involvement over female enslavement causing more outrage. After more than seven decades of exploitation and a 10-year struggle for justice, Ireland on Tuesday admitted its role in the enslavement of thousands of women and girls in the notorious Magdalene Laundry system, but stopped short of issuing a formal apology from the government.
A long-awaited report headed by Senator Martin McAleese said there was "significant state involvement" in how the laundries were run – a reversal of the official state line for years, which insisted the institutions were privately controlled and run by nuns.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/05/ireland-magdalene-laundry-system-apology 

Man describes 'psychotic' behaviour of Derry nuns at children's home

Northern Ireland abuse inquiry told Sisters of Nazareth thumped and kicked children and regularly humiliated them.  Nuns at a care home for children in Northern Ireland behaved like they were psychotic, the largest ever inquiry in UK legal history into child abuse has heard.
A former child resident told the inquiry on Tuesday that the Sisters of Nazareth in the Termonbacca care home thumped and kicked children. In his evidence to the historical institutional abuse inquiry, the witness described the Derry home as a "hellhole" and akin to a concentration camp.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/derry-nuns-psychotic-former-inmate-northern-ireland-abuse-inquiry 

Nuns did not believe girl was sexually abused

Witness to inquiry tells how she has been trying to find her sister for almost 50 years. A witness to the inquiry investigating historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland has recounted how nuns refused to believe her when she told them of how she was sexually abused when she was a young girl.

The 58-year-old woman also told the inquiry today how for almost 50 years she has been trying to locate her older sister who was with her in the Sisters of Nazareth home in Derry.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/nuns-did-not-believe-girl-was-sexually-abused-1.1686325 

Nun recounts rape, abuse by priest in memoir backed by Catholic Church

ROME (RNS) The Catholic Church, under scrutiny for its response to clergy sex abuse scandals, is backing the publication of an Italian nun’s shocking account of her rape as a teenager and years of subsequent abuse by her parish priest in Milan.
The 40-year-old nun, who has not been identified, claims the unnamed priest raped her when she was 14 and continued to abuse her for another seven years.

http://religionnews.com/2016/03/21/nun-recounts-rape-abuse-priest-memoir-backed-catholic-church/ 

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

Santiago, Chile  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.

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

Magdalene laundries report ‘not accurate or respectful’ to women who suffered

The McAleese report is “neither accurate nor respectful” in the suffering women endured in Magdalene laundries, it has been claimed.  The comments were made by Claire McGettrick of Justice for Magdalenes Research, accepting a Dublin Lord Mayor Award on behalf of the Magdalene women.
She said survivors felt vindicated by an apology from Taoiseach Enda Kenny, but repeated the group’s claim the McAleese report did not disclose the full story with regard to the Magdalene laundries. “On the surface, the women have been vindicated since Enda Kenny’s emotional apology in 2013.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/magdalene-laundries-report-not-accurate-or-respectful-to-women-who-suffered-397597.html