Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Child migrant 'sexually abused' in Australia

A 70-year-old former child migrant from a Catholic-run home in Londonderry has said he was sexually abused after being shipped to Australia.

Des McDaid, who has waived his right to anonymity, was giving evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry. He had travelled from St Joseph's Home, Termonbacca in Derry to the Clontarf orphanage in Perth, when he was eight.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29030746 

Ireland Child Abuse Report Leaves Country In Shock

DUBLIN — Irish newspapers struggled on Thursday to convey the enormity of the horrors inflicted for decades by religious orders on the country’s most vulnerable children following the release of a long-awaited official report.

The usually restrained Irish Times headlined its editorial, “The savage reality of our darkest days.” The Irish Independent’s splash headline read “State of Shame.” The Irish Examiner front page said simply: “Shattered Lives.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/ireland-child-abuse-repor_n_206436.html 

UK Nuns face child abuse claim

Fourteen people who claim they were abused at a children's home run by nuns are to seek compensation at the High Court.
Peter Garsden, the solicitor representing the 14, is expected to press for compensation in excess of £50,000 at Manchester High Court on Tuesday. The claim comes after Andrew Christian, a voluntary worker at St Gabriel's Convent in Liverpool, was jailed for 11 years last February for indecently assaulting 13 boys.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/346667.stm 

Ex-nun 'denied abuse at boys' home' - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

A former nun interviewed by police investigating alleged abuse at a children's home in Northern Ireland has said she loved the young people, a public inquiry heard.
In the 1970s, the ex-nun worked at Termonbacca boy's home in Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth religious order, and admitted witnessing sexual acts. But the woman denied causing physical or sexual harm.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/exnun-denied-abuse-at-boys-home-30285399.html 

Roman Catholic girls were abused by nuns, molested by priests: Dutch commission

A commission investigating abuse of children linked to Dutch Roman Catholic institutions says girls were sexually abused by members of the clergy in their homes and in church, while they suffered physical abuse and intimidation at the hands of nuns at homes for young women.
The report follows a previous study focused on boys, which found boys were especially vulnerable to sexual abuse in boarding schools.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/roman_catholic_girls_were_abused_by_nuns_molested_by_priests_dutch_commission 

The abused - in their own words

The voices of the abused emerge raw and bleak from pages 113 to 119 of Volume V of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. They told their stories to an interviewing team. In an introductory note to the section, the team acknowledged their courage: “We were deeply moved, inspired and humbled by our contact with you.
Although we spent only a few hours with you, meeting you and listening to your stories was a moving and enriching experience for all of us. We felt privileged and honoured that you trusted us with such intensely personal and private experiences. . .” Here are sample extracts – unedited – of what the team heard.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-abused-in-their-own-words-1.769156 

Nun Accused in Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Case

SAN DIEGO -- There were new allegations Tuesday of sexual abuse against the Catholic Church in San Diego, and for the first time locally, a nun was named as an abuser. NBC7/39 reported that the San Diego diocese might face as many as 80 more sexual-abuse lawsuits by the end of the year.
The boy referred to in the civil complaint as John Roe was 10 years old in 1969. He was a resident student at a boarding-house school next to the San Diego mission that was run by a Roman Catholic order of nuns at the time.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_07_12/2003_10_14_NBC_NunAccused.htm 

'Cruel Nuns Stole My Childhood'

At the age of two, Frances Reilly was abandoned by her mother and brought up in a convent where relentless mental and physical abuse drove her to the brink of despair. Now living in Essex, she's written a book about how her childhood innocence was destroyed. Steven Russell met her. These are her allegations and this is her story.
"WE have a pagan in the convent!" screams Sister X - not her real name - as she sweeps into the dormitory, waving a stick. "Where is she?" She points at a small girl. "Reilly! You are a heathen, a child of the Devil! Nobody is to come anywhere near you!" Frances Reilly's knees give way and she begins to tremble from head to toe. She doesn't know what "heathen" means and she doesn't know what she's done wrong, but she knows what's coming. "Please, Sister . . ." she starts to say.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2009/01_02/2009_01_13_Russell_CruelNuns.htm 

Attorney: 1 in 4 Nuns Abused Deaf Kids

William Ross says he was 9 years old when a nun at the now-closed Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph force-fed him soup, causing him to vomit. And when he was 12, the same nun locked him in a dark closet for long periods of time, according to a lawsuit filed in Boston Tuesday.
Ross, now of Taunton, also charges that when he was 16 and attending the school, another nun fondled his genitals, put his hand to her breasts and had sexual intercourse with him.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_01_06/2004_05_12_Connolly_Attorney1.htm

Sex abuse by nuns: the unknown story

The crisis over child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church has cost the organisation both in terms of levels of public trust and compensation payouts. When American bishops decided in 2002 to conduct an audit of the scale of the problem, their initiative was given a cautious welcome by survivors of sexual abuse. But one part of the church was not part of the audit. Nuns, officially known as "women religious", do not always fall under the authority of their local bishop. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7022694.stm 

‘We Believe the Children,’ on Child Abuse Hysteria in the 1980s

From 1987 to 1990, in the longest criminal trial in American history, prosecutors tried to prove that Virginia McMartin, who owned a preschool in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and other school employees, including her daughter and grandson, had raped or abused 13 children, taken pornographic pictures of them and forced them to watch the mutilation of animals.

One witness in the preliminary hearing, a 10-year-old boy, testified that he had seen hundreds of animals slaughtered, and that priests and nuns had abused him in a dozen satanic rituals. Vigilante parents went through people’s garbage and used a backhoe to excavate a lot next to the school, looking for the skeletons of slaughtered classroom pets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/books/review-we-believe-the-children-on-child-abuse-hysteria-in-the-1980s.html?_r=0 

Shock new revelations about Mother Teresa

n January, 2012, documents obtained by an investigative journalist working at SF Weekly, a successful alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California, revealed that an Albanian nun, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known to the world today as Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), supported and praised a Catholic priest knowing that he was an accused serial abuser of young boys in his care.
He was Fr. Donald McGuire, and he was associated with Mother Teresa and her nuns since 1981. He was subsequently appointed a confessor and spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa and her religious order, the Missionaries of Charity.

http://www.vatileaks.com/vati-leaks/shock-new-revelations-about-mother-teresa