So far, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth have refused to comment, but it is believed that the allegations will be contested vigorously. One of its principal purposes was to provide an opportunity for persons who had suffered abuse in childhood in institutions to recount that abuse, but it also had extensive investigatory functions. And 40 nuns belonging to the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul are named in a civil action by more than 500 people, mostly middle-aged or elderly, who are claiming compensation from the orders. FOR Vera Willshire, who is now 75, the year 1939 was one of the happiest of her life. "I approached a lawyer because I learned that it was being said that if there were problems in any Nazareth House homes it was only in Scotland. Some nuns are just following the example set by other nuns. But in her collection of personal records, there is the evidence: a telegram adorned with top hats and lucky horseshoes, addressed to her at Aberdeen's Nazareth House on August 3, 1955, saying, "Happy Birthday Darling, from Mummy." Her days and nights were haunted. "You were thrashed about the feet, head and hands, you had your hair pulled and your head bounced off the walls. We have tried every way to get the church to accept what happened, but they've done nothing. He had put a cross by one of the windows in the eaves. She, too, remembers children being force-fed, and also being required to work. It was a dreadful experience and I will never forget it. Some of her therapy was paid for by the Sisters of Mercy, Sister Mary Juanitas religious order that has its origins in 19th-century Ireland and now ministers to the poor around the world. Nobody wanted to hear about the Vestal Virgins back then, she said. This can lead to frustration and a feeling of being trapped. It makes perfect sense that some would take their emotions out on others. ", Docherty worked for most of his life as a driver, and for as many years he has been "in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous. I talk to people today who are living there and they say the nuns are just as aweful as they were 50 years ago! She and her sisters were in Nazareth House for just 18 months - they left when their father, who regularly made the long trek across the country to see his daughters, suddenly arrived in his work clothes to take them away. Its not easy to grow up in an abusive or neglectful home, which can lead to trauma and emotional damage. BERYL HITCHEN, 55, was dumped on the doorstep of the Nazareth House in Cardiff when she was not quite two years old. "I don't want their money," she says. "She especially hated me. Archbishop Mario Conti, Scotland's most senior Catholic churchman, has accused the former Nazareth House inmates of being seekers not of justice but of "pots of gold". Start your Independent Premium subscription today. They may feel they are missing out on something essential and wonder what could have been. That started from the moment I went in there. I didn't know the underscore wasn't mandatory for usernames before I came to these forums. Gmail There they found a disciplined regime which, they say, tipped over into violence. Nuns used to be cruel; that much is true. His childhood memories of the orphanage are filled with emotional and physical terror. We did all the work in the convent, cleaning the windows, scrubbing floors, doing the laundry and washing out the bathrooms. Police are also investigating after lawyers representing former residents passed on relevant files. "She took me off by the hair, twisted me round and threw me against the church wall," she says. Sheriff Colin Harris ordered that several other charges be rejected and said that he would only admonish, rather than imprison, her because of her age and her health. Only my opinion of course, but I'd blame it on a lack of physical and emotional shenanigans with members of the opposite sex. He wasn't prepared to accept that it was the truth. When finally a key was found, they went in: the room was almost as he had left it, and behind a plywood panel there were his childhood documents, exactly as he had predicted. Everything in his flat is neatly arranged - his shoes, his clothes, his videos, his crockery, his correspondence. A spokeswoman for LCWR refused to discuss how many victims of nun abuse had reached out to them, and referred to a statement on the groups website that reads in part, We encourage persons with grievances involving allegations of sexual misconduct by a woman religious to approach the individual religious congregation involved. ", In the pre- and post-war period, orphans were often sent to homes run by religious orders, such as the Sisters of Nazareth. We saw her being brought out of the water. They did so because they wanted to jealously safeguard the gold standard for all children, a stable home run by their mothers and fathers. They were raised in abusive homes and grew up as abusive adults. ". Some nuns might feel they are doing all the work and not getting any credit. The archbishop also accused Currie of being unreliable. I blame Nazareth House. When I couldn't make out what they were saying they thought I was being cheeky and I got slapped and punched a lot. See Details 2.Why were Irish Nuns so Cruel? ", Like other inmates, Cusiter vividly recalls night-time. Powered by Invision Community, Unexplained-Mysteries.com uses cookies. I think that's the way many of them were trained, in a very authoritarian church. It is to be a test case, in which 11 former inmates will appear in court, and is expected to be heard in Scotland later this year. Her father took the child to the local priest "to explain what he'd discovered and how angry he was for his children, but the priest never took it up". No mass. My Father's Story on the Nuns and Priests. I've never found it easy forming relationships and had periods when I've had to go to hospital and had all sorts of problems.". The Nazareth House children face another difficulty: the time bar. Coming from a guy who feel he has the right to condemn, criticise and berate the practice's of nearly two billion people, have you been given Carte Blanche on this board? The scathing report, by Professor Bruce Grundy of Queensland University, told of how one girl, Helen Carter, had her legs burnt with a red-hot poker, to exorcise the Devil, while another child almost lost her legs which became infected after a nun pulled out her ingrowing toenails with pliers. There was real hate there. Cusiter became one of the former inmates whose evidence initiated the unprecedented criminal prosecution in Scotland in autumn 2000, when Sister Alphonso, appearing as Marie Docherty, was convicted of four charges of cruel and unnatural treatment. All we want is for the Catholic church to change its ways and let us live in peace. Iam writting a family book about our family from as far back as I can go. ", What was it, though, that caused such cruelty by women? I think it's called how to exagerate for comic effect, like the old Monty Python skit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw, You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. The orphanage survivors' civil case must show that their complaints refer not just to rogue nuns but to a regime for which the order itself was responsible. Are just some of them mean? Cases are being compiled in England, too, though there seems to be some reluctance to prosecute physical abuse. Fyfe argues that the cultures of orphanages and schools tend to be specific and different - he also represents clients who were in the hands of the de la Salle monks in Britain, against whom there are more allegations of sexual abuse than there are against the Nazareth House nuns. Thomas Paine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw. The military and emergency services found those abandoned, bereaved children attractive recruits because, though they lacked education, they knew how to iron their shirts, polish their shoes and obey orders. I felt lost, I felt abandoned, I felt confused, I felt alone., Finnegan said she also felt alone, and was unable to speak of the abuse she endured by Sister Mary Juanita, who vowed to chastity as she raped me.. This embarrassed both church and state in the 1940s. He is a fast-talking, busy man, a retired postman, "a bit of a cheeky chap, straight to the point", he says of himself. She, too, remembers the nuns' nocturnal inspections. Nun of Monza by Giuseppe Molteni. He had lost his family, and letters from his siblings and his mother were never given to him. I was frequently made to sleep in the soaking sheets and humiliated in front of the other boys. ", Some former residents say they were sexually abused - Cusiter remembers a driver who "would touch up the boys and the girls" and, she says, a child would often be used to keep watch while one of the handymen pursued his sexual relationship with a nun - but most of the cases against the Sisters of Nazareth concern physical violence. See more. In the past, victims were very much ashamed and afraid to tell their stories, but they are starting to come forward and we are expecting that this may be as big as the priest abuse scandal.. Eventually I was rescued by a small boat, but it was terrifying." Currie is one of the organisers. The retired telephonist has never forgotten the summer of 1955 when the children of Cardonald Nazareth House in Glasgow went to Aberdeen on an exchange. He was put in Nazareth House when he was two. The measure, which had languished in Albany for more than a decade, allows a one-year window for alleged victims to file lawsuits against their attackers, no matter when the abuse occurred. That was when her main tormentor at the Nazareth House in Middlesbrough, Sister Laurence, died. Finnegan, a widow whose husband was a former Catholic priest, now lives in Pennsylvania, where she has run a group home for needy children and is the minister of the Celtic Christian Church. (9 Reasons Why), Why Are Customers So Rude? Jean Guerrier, like her sister, Vera Willshire, recalls the regime at the Nazareth House in Middlesbrough as unrelentingly brutal and frightening. I just want to try to understand it. Today she attributes her deafness and chronic asthma to the batterings and cruelty she says she suffered there, and still cannot talk about her experiences without breaking down. Its crucial for nuns to be aware of this and to try to break the cycle. She also wants the Vatican to require Catholic leaders to contact police right away if they are confronted with abuse, rather than alerting local bishops or other church hierarchy first. "Looking back, I think they really despised the children. Dr Abernathy denies the allegations of cruelty and abuse, and argues that for 130 years the Sisters of Nazareth "devoted their entire lives to the care of orphans, abandoned children, children from broken homes and in many cases children referred from the courts. Sorry, I have to go, she told the nun who had terrified her. Why? I think the average age for priests and nuns in the US today is like 70. Your post was so full of hate & sarcasm Im surprised you havent been banned what you wrote was absolutely inexcusable. However, nuns arent the cruel teachers they used to be. Well, I don't think that humans are meant to live without any intimacy; physical or emotional. "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst." Gruel definition, a light, usually thin, cooked cereal made by boiling meal, especially oatmeal, in water or milk. For messing about in church. "We had wonderful parents. ", Francis Docherty is 58 and runs a helpline, Historical Survivors of In-Care Abuse, whose cases include people as old as 95 who are still suffering, still searching for their lost brothers and sisters, still trying to sort things out. When Finnegan finally summoned up the courage to confront Sister Mary Juanita in the early 1990s more than 20 years after graduating high school in 1969 she found herself tongue-tied. ", Punishment was perpetually lurking: "You never knew when or what. NANCY WILLOUGHBY was taken into care by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth after her mother died when she was three. Or worse. well practise what you preach, "He who is without sin." you should know the rest, but then again i'm not to sure you do? Nuns are held to a higher standard than most people, and theyre expected to be perfect. "After a real struggle, we have persuaded the legal aid board to support 11 test cases," says Fyfe. After all, we all have our own crosses to bear. Dispenza, 78, has fought for more than two decades for justice for victims of clergy abuse and plans to take her fight to the Vatican on Monday. She fell, he was told. 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