BFN: We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage

[China]

We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage

 

It was a late summer afternoon, Sally Dale recalled, when the boy was thrown through the fourth-floor window.

 

“He kind of hit, and— ” she placed both hands palm-down before her. Her right hand slapped down on the left, rebounded up a little, then landed again.

 

For just a moment, the room was still. “Bounced?” one of the many lawyers present asked. “Well, I guess you’d call it — it was a bounce,” she replied. “And then he laid still.”

 

Sally, who was speaking under oath, tried to explain it. She started again. “The first thing I saw was looking up, hearing the crash of the window, and then him going down, but my eyes were still glued—.” She pointed up at where the broken window would have been and then she pointed at her own face and drew circles around it. “That habit thing, whatever it is, that they wear, stuck out like a sore thumb.”

 

A nun was standing at the window, Sally said. She straightened her arms out in front of her. “But her hands were like that.”

 

There were only two people in the yard, she said: Sally herself and a nun who was escorting her. In a tone that was still completely bewildered, she recalled asking, Sister?

Sister took hold of Sally’s ear, turned her around, and walked her back to the other side of the yard. The nun told her she had a vivid imagination. We are going to have to do something about you, child.

 

Sally figured the boy fell from the window in 1944 or so, because she was moving to the “big girls” dormitory that day. Girls usually moved when they were 6, though residents of St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont, did not always have a clear sense of their age — birthdays, like siblings and even names, being one of the many human attributes that were stripped from them when they passed through its doors. She recounted his fall in a deposition on Nov. 6, 1996, as part of a remarkable group of lawsuits that 28 former residents brought against the nuns, the diocese, and the social agency that oversaw the orphanage.

 

I watched the deposition — all 19 hours of grainy, scratchy videotape — more than two decades later. By that time sexual abuse scandals had ripped through the Catholic Church, shattering the silence that had for so long protected its secrets. It was easier for accusers in general to come forward, and easier for people to believe their stories, even if the stories sounded too awful to be true. Even if they had happened decades ago, when the accusers were only children. Even if the people they were accusing were pillars of the community.

 

But for all these revelations — including this month’s Pennsylvania grand jury report on how the church hid the crimes of hundreds of priests — a darker history, the one to which Sally’s story belongs, remains all but unknown. It is the history of unrelenting physical and psychological abuse of captive children. Across thousands of miles, across decades, the abuse took eerily similar forms: People who grew up in orphanages said they were made to kneel or stand for hours, sometimes with their arms straight out, sometimes holding their boots or some other item. They were forced to eat their own vomit. They were dangled upside down out windows, over wells, or in laundry chutes. Children were locked in cabinets, in closets, in attics, sometimes for days, sometimes so long they were forgotten. They were told their relatives didn’t want them, or they were permanently separated from their siblings. They were sexually abused. They were mutilated.

 

Darkest of all, it is a history of children who entered orphanages but did not leave them alive.

 

From former residents of America’s Catholic orphanage system, I had heard stories about these deaths — that they were not natural or even accidents, but were instead the inevitable consequence of the nuns’ brutality. Sally herself described witnessing at least two incidents in which she said a child at St. Joseph’s died or was outright murdered.

It’s likely that more than 5 million Americans passed through orphanages in the 20th century alone. At its peak in the 1930s, the American orphanage system included more than 1,600 institutions, partly supported with public funding but usually run by religious orders, including the Catholic Church.

 

Outside the United States, the orphanage system and the wreckage it produced has undergone substantial official scrutiny over the last two decades. In Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Australia, multiple formal government inquiries have subpoenaed records, taken witness testimony, and found, time and again, that children consigned to orphanages — in many cases, Catholic orphanages — were victims of severe abuse. A 1998 UK government inquiry, citing “exceptional depravity” at four homes run by the Christian Brothers order in Australia, heard that a boy was the object of a competition between the brothers to see who could rape him 100 times. The inquiries focused primarily on sexual abuse, not physical abuse or murder, but taken together, the reports showed almost limitless harm that was the result not just of individual cruelty but of systemic abuse.

 

In the United States, however, no such reckoning has taken place. Even today the stories of the orphanages are rarely told and barely heard, let alone recognized in any formal way by the government, the public, or the courts. The few times that orphanage abuse cases have been litigated in the US, the courts have remained, with a few exceptions, generally indifferent. Private settlements could be as little as a few thousand dollars. Government bodies have rarely pursued the allegations.

So in a journey that lasted four years, I went around the country, and even around the world, in search of the truth about this vast, unnarrated chapter of American experience. Eventually I focused on St. Joseph’s, where the former residents’ lawsuits had briefly forced the dark history into public view.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Riggo-toni]

[Zguy28]

These stories just break my heart. My Lord and my God.

[Fresh8686]

Unchecked self-righteousness is one of the most dangerous and horrible of human emotions.

So many people do horrible things to others, because they think they have a right to it. A right to "punish". When really they're just as sick or out of balance as the people they want to punish, if not more so.

 

[TheGoodBits]

Centuries of egregious sins committed by, and on behalf of, the Catholic Church are finally beginning to catch up with them.

 

I hope it destroys them. 

[bobandweave]

This is really messed up. I come from a family raised by catholics and never knew any of this was happening. My father even attended seminary school for two years and didn't see any of this either. As disgusting as this is I hope everyone remembers that not all Catholics are like this or support any of this type of disgusting behavior. There are bad people in all religions. Just because some of them are complete pieces of **** doesn't mean everyone that follows the religion are, just like Muslims. There are good ones and bad ones. Same for every group out there,

 

It hurts me everytime I see articles like this knowing none of my family supported any crap like that and the group is being shamed because of the few. Sorry for ranting just hurting to see this

[zoony]

Okay, now someone do the Baptists

 

[Riggo-toni]

What's a Baptist?

 

A Methodist with a high school diploma.

 

Why don't Baptists make love standing up?

 

It might lead to dancing.

[LD0506]

23 minutes ago, zoony said:

Okay, now someone do the Baptists

 

 

Yeah, kids being tortured and murdered, let's make jokes!

[Destino]

It's those Catholics, which this article stresses despite repeatedly admitting this happened at other orphanages.  It's those Hollywood types.  It's prison guards, excuse me a few bad apples.  It's doctors at mental institutions, wait no we like doctors too so it's a few bad apples here too.  And of course pimps and human traffickers.

 

At some point people are going to have to realize that there's a common element at play here right?  That it's not these individual groups that are all just coincidentally similar in their systematic abuse.  It's the avialability of victims and that no one believes them (or cares even if they do).

 

My point is that this stuff is predictable, which means that we should be able to identify where it's likely and act to remove those conditions.  

[zoony]

32 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

 

Yeah, kids being tortured and murdered, let's make jokes!

 

Im not making jokes necessarily, just amused (horrified may be a better word) at the general naivete of the American public... thinking rampant abuse by priests and religous figures is a Catholic problem.

 

The specific problem that the catholic church has is one of hierarchy, which its protestant cousins do not suffer from.  That makes them an easier target for sure, but certainly not a richer one

 

[Elessar78]

Even St. (Mother) Theresa was known/notorious for abusing her acolytes mainly in the form of nutritional deprivation. 

 

A medical doctor had to convince her that rice and salt was not an adequate meal for the nuns in her order. 

[Zguy28]

1 hour ago, Elessar78 said:

Even St. (Mother) Theresa was known/notorious for abusing her acolytes mainly in the form of nutritional deprivation. 

 

A medical doctor had to convince her that rice and salt was not an adequate meal for the nuns in her order. 

Sounds more like an old school football coach.

[Dan T.]

Should the Catholic church take the radical step of doing away with vows of celibacy for its priests and nuns?  I'll say, only half (or quarter) jokingly, that maybe old nuns wouldn't be so bitter and angry if they got laid once in awhile.  And so too, priests wouldn't be so inclined to commit acts of sexual abuse if they had a wholesome, legitimate outlet for their sexual needs.

 

It won't cure all the ills of sexual and physical abuse, but it may help.  Of course, that's asking the Church to change a longstanding, fundamental cornerstone of its doctrine toward those who "choose to serve God."

[Bang]

Burn it down. Burn down the whole myth.

 

~Bang

[Dan T.]

31 minutes ago, Dan T. said:

Should the Catholic church take the radical step of doing away with vows of celibacy for its priests and nuns?  I'll say, only half (or quarter) jokingly, that maybe old nuns wouldn't be so bitter and angry if they got laid once in awhile.  And so too, priests wouldn't be so inclined to commit acts of sexual abuse if they had a wholesome, legitimate outlet for their sexual needs.

 

It won't cure all the ills of sexual and physical abuse, but it may help.  Of course, that's asking the Church to change a longstanding, fundamental cornerstone of its doctrine toward those who "choose to serve God."

 

The other obvious benefit is that it would widen the pool of candidates willing to become a priest or nun without having to grapple with the prospect of a life of celibacy.

[Destino]

23 minutes ago, Dan T. said:

Should the Catholic church take the radical step of doing away with vows of celibacy for its priests and nuns?  I'll say, only half (or quarter) jokingly, that maybe old nuns wouldn't be so bitter and angry if they got laid once in awhile.  And so too, priests wouldn't be so inclined to commit acts of sexual abuse if they had a wholesome, legitimate outlet for their sexual needs.

 

It won't cure all the ills of sexual and physical abuse, but it may help.  Of course, that's asking the Church to change a longstanding, fundamental cornerstone of its doctrine toward those who "choose to serve God."

I don't buy into this "sexual needs" incel logic, or that having a normal sex life would stop those that get off on abuse from wanting to abuse someone.  It certainly doesn't explain those looking to abuse children.  

[mcsluggo]

I'm going to say it.   

 

a second-hand account of a 60 year old story remembered by someone that happened when they were 5 years old is the defining characteristic of these institutions?

 

i have NO DOUBT that abuses and terrible things happened at these institutions.  none.   Hell, there were 1,600 orphanages, according to the story... if nothing happened at any of them, that would be more than just incredible.   

 

But..... 

1) did more abuses take place here than the average for kids under the loving care of their own parents?   This question matters, as we question how much to hate the only groups that actually tried to care for orphans in the past.   

2) any guess to the standard expectations for orphans OUTSIDE of these systems?   

3) Some people just plain are awful, no matter what "team's uniform" they wear.   There is no explaining away that kind of behavior 

4)  And frankly, 60 years ago the range of tactics for disciplining kids was...wider---- the sensational cover-story murder, aside, of course.    (i get the grapefruit face everytime i hear some yahoo bemoaning the fact that PC assholes have pussified the discipline of children ....dagblammit!).  But the popular image of the nun holding a broken bloodied ruler after beating some poor kid.... if you polled the whole population, many people actually didn't necessarily view that as wrong back then.  and it wan't just nuns doing the hitting  (they just make a better, more clear-cut image in the mind's eye.)

 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

“I’m-a da Pope-a. You keep-a your mouth-a shut.”

~Every Pope

 

 

edit: even the non-Italian ones

[Dan T.]

45 minutes ago, mcsluggo said:

I'm going to say it.   

 

a second-hand account of a 60 year old story remembered by someone that happened when they were 5 years old is the defining characteristic of these institutions?

 

i have NO DOUBT that abuses and terrible things happened at these institutions.  none.   Hell, there were 1,600 orphanages, according to the story... if nothing happened at any of them, that would be more than just incredible.   

 

But..... 

1) did more abuses take place here than the average for kids under the loving care of their own parents?   This question matters, as we question how much to hate the only groups that actually tried to care for orphans in the past.   

2) any guess to the standard expectations for orphans OUTSIDE of these systems?   

3) Some people just plain are awful, no matter what "team's uniform" they wear.   There is no explaining away that kind of behavior 

4)  And frankly, 60 years ago the range of tactics for disciplining kids was...wider---- the sensational cover-story murder, aside, of course.    (i get the grapefruit face everytime i hear some yahoo bemoaning the fact that PC assholes have pussified the discipline of children ....dagblammit!).  But the popular image of the nun holding a broken bloodied ruler after beating some poor kid.... if you polled the whole population, many people actually didn't necessarily view that as wrong back then.  and it wan't just nuns doing the hitting  (they just make a better, more clear-cut image in the mind's eye.)

 

 

Burning a girl's hand and fingers with lit matches for stealing candy goes beyond the old canard of wrapping knuckles with a ruler.  And that anecdote was corroborated independently by multiple witnesses.  Sexual abuse appears constantly in the stories those people told. And the fact, toward the end of the article, that for virtually the entire life of the orphanage it was managed by priests who, as it turned out, were being treated at one time or another by the church for sexual misconduct, lends credence to the multiple claims of sexual abuse:

 

In all, I was stunned to discover that at least 11 and as many as 16 male clergy members who had lived or worked at St. Joseph’s or Don Bosco — a boys home on the same grounds as St. Joseph’s that was run by priests rather than nuns — had been accused of, or treated for, the sexual assault of minors. Five laymen who worked at the orphanage were also accused or convicted of child sexual abuse. And even that wasn’t the full tally. There were still more accused priests and laymen at the Burlington Diocese summer camps and other local Catholic institutions that the St. Joseph’s children attended.

 

Crucially, from 1935 until the orphanage closed in 1974, five of St. Joseph’s eight resident chaplains — the priests who oversaw the orphanage — had been accused of sexual abuse. Those five — Fathers Foster, Bresnehan, Devoy, Emile Savary, and Donald LaRouche — ruled over St. Joseph’s during most of its final 39 years of existence, meaning that during all that time, there were only three years in which the priest in charge of the orphanage did not turn out to be an accused abuser.

 

 

Some of the discipline may not have been too far outside the mainstream of the times.   But there was enough corroboration about the excesses to believe that some horrible stuff was happening to a population of children already vulnerable and in need of care rather than abuse.

 

[Destino]

1 hour ago, mcsluggo said:

1) did more abuses take place here than the average for kids under the loving care of their own parents?   This question matters, as we question how much to hate the only groups that actually tried to care for orphans in the past.   

2) any guess to the standard expectations for orphans OUTSIDE of these systems?   

These are great questions.  I've asked these questions myself because it's not uncommon, while working in the charity world, to run into people raising money for orphanages.  It's a strange dynamic because the common thinking in the US is that orphanages, or institutions, are horrible.  There's a lot of science supporting that thinking, but what are the alternatives?  Tough situation. 

 

Foster care is similar.  While it's clearly seen as the superior choice over institutions, a kid "being in the system" is almost synonymous with "abused."  Is the foster care system an evil child abusing organization?  Again, it's a tough situation.  What we know is that it has proven extremely difficult to keep vulnerable kids in large scale programs away from people that wish to harm them for personal gain or gratification.

 

Quote

4)  And frankly, 60 years ago the range of tactics for disciplining kids was...wider---- the sensational cover-story murder, aside, of course.    (i get the grapefruit face everytime i hear some yahoo bemoaning the fact that PC assholes have pussified the discipline of children ....dagblammit!).  But the popular image of the nun holding a broken bloodied ruler after beating some poor kid.... if you polled the whole population, many people actually didn't necessarily view that as wrong back then.  and it wan't just nuns doing the hitting  (they just make a better, more clear-cut image in the mind's eye.)

I noticed the same thing reading the story.  Being made to hold objects with your arms extended was fairly common and seen as a kinder gentler alternative to beating.  By modern standards, in some places, any form of physical punishment is seen as abuse.  People forget that corporal punishment is how children have been raised for essentially all of human history until very recently.  Europe has largely banned hitting children over the last 20 years.  Most of South America, banned it in the last 10 years.  North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia have not.  This is very much a modern movement that did not exist 60 years ago.  Kids being subjected to physical violence as punishment for misbehavior was entirely normal. 

 

But many of these institutions went a great deal further than what was normal, even in that era.  They were intentionally cruel and abusive.  Times have changed, but vulnerable populations under the control of people who suffer very little scrutiny or oversight are still abused.  I don't know if the situation turns people abusive or if abusers are just remarkably gifted at identifying and making their way into those situations, but that dynamic resulting in abuse should never come as a surprise.