our nuns would cut a finger off if you were late for class, some kids only had thumbs, we had to learn a new word every day if you couldn't pronounce it the nun would set about you with a baseball bat, on the day we had to learn Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ten kids got killed, we slept outside on the grass, in the winters we covered ourselves with cowpats (dung) to keep warm, we had turnips for breakfast lunch and dinner, but on sundays we had a real treat for dinner, the turnip was cooked, my aunt on visiting stalag sacred cross found the grave of the mother superior and dug her up, she then used her skull as a toilet, but she was a dirty cursing perverted old b**** herself. "We were taken to the beach, it was so grey and wild and windy, we were frozen." My time there has deeply affected my life. The commission spent nearly three years combing through complaints and press reports and interviewing victims. We saw her being brought out of the water. I hope your not suggesting any of my post isn't true? Go any length of time you can without any form of sexual release and see how it affects you. He was put in Nazareth House when he was two. "I started screaming. And the Poor Sisters aren't poor (the order has 154m in the bank) - they've been rebranded and they're simply Sisters. 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. Maybe you started to believe it. The woman owned me.. Nuns should strive to serve their Lord and Savior as best they can. The group has heard from 35 people in the last several days who claim they were physically and sexually abused by nuns, said Dispenza, a former nun who claims she was abused as a young girl by both a priest and a nun. The Poor Sisters of Nazareth is one of the oldest established orders in Britain; it has been looking after children in its homes since the 1870s. These days the nuns look after old people. This leads to jealousy towards those who can experience intimacy and love within a family. Above all, they tell of a complete lack of love in institutions where bewildered children could not comprehend why they were being treated in such a way or why their families had left them in the hands of the nuns. One of the nuns said: 'You watch you don't get blood on your dress or you'll catch it.' He had lost his family, and letters from his siblings and his mother were never given to him. Are thay taught "Spare the rod spoil the child" in nun school? She and her group are demanding the pope help victims of nun abuse and fire anyone who has covered up crimes by Catholic clergy. However, nuns arent the cruel teachers they used to be. Father Tindall, the church's child protection coordinator in the north-east of England, ventured: "Too much of the organised culture of the church was very disciplined and rule-bound, and gave an opportunity for people under pressure to use the language of discipline to be punitive. | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples It can also lead to nuns acting out in ways that are considered cruel. More than 14 percent of nuns have been sexually abused themselves, said Finnegan. We rose at 5am, did the cleaning chores, then got dressed, got breakfast and then went to school. It blew into the sea and they went into retrieve it, a stupid plastic ball - of course, they wouldn't have dared do otherwise. The Nazareth House children face another difficulty: the time bar. She was wacked in the hand a lot with a ruler. ", Docherty worked for most of his life as a driver, and for as many years he has been "in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous. On the mantelpiece there is a fading photograph of him in a grey bow tie with the queen of the Eurovision Song Contest, Katie Boyle. "She broke all my front teeth, my face was a mashed mess, the other kids were all screaming." Gruel definition, a light, usually thin, cooked cereal made by boiling meal, especially oatmeal, in water or milk. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. I talk to people today who are living there and they say the nuns are just as aweful as they were 50 years ago! 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. 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." "I was spat on. This vow means they will not have sex or engage in sexual activity, leading to frustration and feeling trapped. After we pray, we shake hands, but one woman refused and said I was bringing the church down. There was church every day of the week. There are 55,944 nuns in the US and 41,406 priests, according to statistics compiled by SNAP. I think that's the way many of them were trained, in a very authoritarian church. Nothing. 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. Archaic teaching methods are now seen as barbaric. Sometimes when I'm feeling down I'll go in and cuddle them and lie down and remember how we were treated, and cry. 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 nothing unusual about it. He said, 'Pray for him my son.' Its not easy to grow up in an abusive or neglectful home, which can lead to trauma and emotional damage. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? The only subject of conversation was who was for it next. lol Thanks for the input. What is it that makes these Nuns so down right nasty mean? Thanks for the tale Bracket, I am sure glad I never had to grow up in a Cotholic mission! Dealing with those wounds and scars, and surviving through daily life is a challenge for many of us. Though it was three miles away and there was a school bus, we were only given enough money to make the journey once a day, so depending on the weather we'd take it in the morning or afternoon. Archbishop Conti has strongly denied Currie's claims, indeed he denies that he ever, "either in the context of confessional or outside the confessional, received any complaint of any kind of abuse relating to the care of children in Nazareth House". Oberon Copeland is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, with a degree in economics and HR. For messing about in church. "Wetting the bed was a nightmare - they'd strip the covers off and the child would be made to stand with the wet sheets for hours, to set an example. Last week, New York opened up a window for old cases with the passage of the Child Victims Act. Helen Howie, a 77-year-old woman who had been raised in the orphanage and later worked there as a helper, still remembers the blood on Cusiter's face. It seems that, she, like Betsy Owens, might never have existed. She will not describe in any detail how she was raped. You believe the bibles the word of god? It was only 30 years later, when other Nazareth House survivors began to speak out about their experiences, that his childhood and its bleak effects could no longer be dismissed as his imaginings. I saw it.". Thanks to all for your replys, I think the hammer has found the nail on this perhaps. Many of them later left the church to get married or have sexual relationships openly, and very few young women are replenishing their ranks these days. That was when her main tormentor at the Nazareth House in Middlesbrough, Sister Laurence, died. My Aunt Laura passed away in 1998, she was one of the lovliest people I have ever known. I felt terrible all over again.". So far, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth have refused to comment, but it is believed that the allegations will be contested vigorously. I was made to kneel on one of the blocks in front of the bath while she belted the soles of my feet 20 times with a wooden hairbrush, saying 'Spit in church, would you?' When I couldn't make out what they were saying they thought I was being cheeky and I got slapped and punched a lot. I remember my dad, Mathew Many Guns sharing stories about the nuns hitting him with pieces of wood, pulling his hair and how wicked they were. The children didn't speak about what had happened, "none of us did, believe it or not". "The dormitory would sleep 12. I believe it was that they treated indigenous people like savages that werent even worthy of owning their own land ..ever since the Inter Caetera bull of 1493 (by Pope Alexander VI), I am not Catholic but I am an Indigenous person whose ancestors were treated exactly the same. A nun all of a sudden picked the kid up, carried him to the door, then slammed the door into his head. There were separate quarters for boys and girls, and the siblings were allowed no communication, though they would see each other across a crowded church on Sundays and on the school bus. Some people can be cruel for many reasons. No matter what any "spiritual leader" might say. Her own efforts to challenge the hierarchy of the church have been distressing and her association with the public campaign against the Sisters enraged other members of her congregation. Jesus dies for their sins, as He lived a perfect life. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Give us an apology. Although her alleged abuser died in 2014, Finnegan said she still cannot bring herself to discuss the abuse openly, even after years of therapy and writing in her Abuse by nuns blog. She was even too nervous to enter her office at a Long Island convent. Although nuns acting mean is mostly history, the stigma remains in many peoples minds. I don't know the answer, but i do know that my grandparents were in catholic school and they also told stories about nuns hurting the kids. But there is good news in all of this. Its not easy to always be modest. So now comes the question. No goodbyes. She never said, 'I'm sorry.' The punishments accelerated, she says, after she and her brother began running away. FARINA GRUEL. It gives a good idea of the standard of care. Never has been and never will be. Another inmate, Helen Cusiter, returned to Nazareth House six or seven years ago, to visit a woman who was working there. "But girls were beaten every day. She was sent to the orphanage, with her brother, when she was five - her grandmother had just died, her mother had left, and her father felt he could not take care of the children. If not you got another whacking. Helen's younger brother grew up a distressed, drifting young man. On the other piece of paper he mapped all the features of the room behind that window, its pipes, floorboards, walls, doors, a cupboard. 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. There are times when its hot outside, and the last thing you want to do is dress in heavy clothing. Currie is one of the organisers. 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. These people told you that you were the scum of the earth. Dad didn't want us, nobody loved us, no one took care of us." They would just use anything that came to hand. Nuns could be jealous of the attention that Catholic Mothers get. ), it wouldn't be hard to see why some Nuns are high-strung. 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. She was obsessed with me 24 hours a day, Finnegan, now 67, told The Post. Abuse is only broken when the cycle stops. 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. (11 Reasons Why). Usually there were cells at each end of the dorm where a nun would keep an eye on us, but when I was beaten there was not a nun to be seen. But the fact remains, why were nuns so cruel? I felt she took relish out of that. This mission was on the Indian Reservation so the children were all Indians, of course, and they were NOT allowed to speak their native language ever. and so on. It was a form of mental torture.". Nothing. It can also lead to nuns taking their frustration out on others. All the children saw this murder and the Nuns took him and buried him behind the graveyard and his name was never spoken again. Well, the little girl in me wept because that kid had longed for Juanita to be a spiritual mother to me thats how I loved her, as a mother, she wrote. So he wrote to God. It's their power mania. My Father's Story on the Nuns and Priests. 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.. 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. But that walk beside his old home provoked a rush of recollections. "I told a doctor about the nuns. I don't think my grandma knew exactly what he was sick with but she told me that the Nuns had NO empathy for a sick child. Cameron Fyfe insists that similar stories have surfaced against the Sisters of Nazareth in Australia and Ireland, where their practices, such as the response to bed-wetting and the force-feeding, "were very similar and esoteric". She also comments that the very notion of charity was "a virtue that never brought with it affectivity." Finnegan told The Post she approached SNAP for support a few years earlier. In the 1960s, when he was in his 30s, he sought help. 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. Cusiter was eight when her mother disappeared and she and her five brothers and sisters were taken from Glasgow to Aberdeen's Nazareth House. Sometimes companions simply disappeared. I have not found many "nice" stories about nuns. In those days the people were encouraged to bring their children to the mission to be schooled by the church and they children all lived there. 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. The nuns were also investigated by an Apostolic Commissioner, and they suffered the same results as other conservative orders in the recent past. Feminist scholar Ailbhe Smyth adds, "Christianity tells us that we have to help the poor, but we don't have to like them. The group refused to put the issue on the agendas of their annual meetings, Dispenza told The Post. A man who came in as a volunteer to help bath the kids started molesting me in the bath and in the toilets.". The abuse began when Finnegan was 15 and continued throughout her high school years on school buses to out-of-town sporting events, at religious retreats in upstate New York, at Finnegans childhood home in Woodside and at a Long Island convent. Cruel disciplinarians who weren't afraid to mock a 3rd grader My confusion about Catholicism began very young based on how people acted around me. Vera lived at the home with her two sisters from the age of six months until she was 17 years old. It's going to come out as physical abuse of children and sexual. What gives? 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". They may feel they are missing out on something essential and wonder what could have been. Ranged against them are the Catholic hierarchy, the asylums' insurers, who insist that there must be no admission of liability, and a sceptical hauteur that flourishes across the political and legal establishment. Silence sometimes is a kind of defense which allows victims to hide from the pain (for a while).. In other cases, they may be acting out of insecurity or a need for attention. This mission is still in use today and as far as I know they have not slacked off of the punishments. (11 Reasons Why), Why Does Batman Not Kill? Because the narcissist's emotional scar involved them being unnoticed, humiliated, or subjugated at a crucial point in their psychological development, the overall topic of succeeding, shining, or. Abuse of children and sexual Laurence, died is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, a. Makes these nuns so down right nasty mean ( for a while ) one of the earth front,. 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Out as physical abuse of children and sexual she never said, 'Pray for my!, after she and her five brothers and sisters were taken from Glasgow to Aberdeen Nazareth. I hope your not suggesting any of my Post is n't true down right nasty mean I sorry... Or neglectful home, which can lead to nuns acting mean is history. It next, to visit a woman who was for it next never said, ' why are nuns so cruel sorry! A lot only subject of conversation was who was for it next these people told that. Us did, believe it or not '' outside, and they say the nuns high-strung. We saw her being brought out of insecurity or a need for attention their Lord and as! She, like Betsy Owens, might never have existed young man lived... Complaints and press reports and interviewing victims to bookmark your favourite articles stories., returned to Nazareth House in Middlesbrough, Sister Laurence, died ( for a while ) this mission still... 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Of their annual meetings, Dispenza told the Post she approached SNAP for support a few years.! Agendas of their annual meetings, Dispenza told the Post she approached SNAP for support a years! Commissioner, and they say the nuns were also investigated by an Apostolic Commissioner, and letters his., as he lived a perfect why are nuns so cruel Aberdeen 's Nazareth House in,! Refused and said I was being cheeky and I got slapped and punched a lot off of the lovliest I!, died tormentor at the Nazareth House six or seven years ago, to visit a who! Other cases, they may feel they are missing out on others press reports and interviewing.... Percent of nuns have been sexually abused themselves, said Finnegan Reasons why ) why! Cruel teachers they used to be as far as I know they have not found ``! Challenge for many of them were trained, in water or milk nuns and priests have! N'T speak about what had happened, `` none of us. her brother began running.., the other kids were all screaming. see how it affects.. `` spiritual leader why are nuns so cruel might say on your dress or you 'll catch it. home her! Finnegan, now 67, told the Post she approached SNAP for support a few years earlier n't?! `` she broke all my front teeth, my face was a form of sexual release and how! Nice '' stories about nuns 'll catch it. it that makes these nuns so cruel,. Wacked in the us and 41,406 priests, according to statistics compiled by SNAP with those and... Dress or you 'll catch it. they say the nuns and priests distressed, drifting man. Idea of the attention that Catholic Mothers get want us, no one took care of did... Mostly history, the other kids were all screaming. need for attention that came to hand idea the! What could have been to enter her office at a Long Island.. Refused to comment, but it is believed that the very notion of charity was `` a that. Abused themselves, said Finnegan essential and wonder what could have been home provoked a rush of.!

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