Recently a Pennsylvania grand jury report disclosed details about how the church covered up hundreds of abuse crimes committed by priests. Then there was the Netflix documentary, “The Keepers,” which connected a sexually abusive Catholic principal to the mysterious murder of a whistle-blowing nun.
No matter how you turn, twist, or outright ignore it, it’s safe to say that these are difficult times for the Catholic Church. Bad press abounds and all of the skeletons in the church’s collective closet are coming out into the light one-by-one. This next revelation about a Vermont Catholic orphanage, however, may be the most disturbing of all.
Bouncing Baby Boy
It was a late summer afternoon when Sally Dale saw it happen. She was a child living in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. Even now, so many years after it happened, Sally can barely believe what she saw that day. Incredulous as it seems, Sally had seen one of the nuns throw a little boy out of a fourth story window.
Vivid Imagination
The nun was standing at the window, her arms straightened out in front of her over the sill. Sally looked on in horrified disbelief. The only two people that had seen the act were herself and the nun who had been escorting her. When she asked the nun what she’d just seen, the woman grabbed her by the ear and dragged her to the other side of the yard, scolding her for having a wicked, vivid imagination.
Report in 1996
Sally knew what she had seen and recounted it in vivid detail many years later when she and 28 other former orphans of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage came forward with horrifying accounts of abuse there. It was 1996 and each of the 28 people had brought lawsuits against the nuns, the diocese, and the social agency that oversaw the orphanage.
To Small Effect
For decades so many of those people, Sally Dale included, had avoided speaking about anything that had happened at St. Joseph’s. While many of them went on to marry, have children, and in some cases even grandchildren of their own, none of them liked to discuss the orphanage. Emboldened by each other and the help of some caring lawyers, they felt comfortable enough to speak out.
Awful Allegations
As stated, sexual abuse scandals by members of the Catholic Church were already being bandied about far more freely than they had been when Sally was an orphan. With the secrets and silence shattered, the church could no longer hide from its skeletons. Nevertheless, the stories told by survivors at St. Joseph’s were just as awful, and in some cases more awful, than the allegations that had come before.
Orphans a’ Plenty
In the 1930s, when the American orphanage system was at its peak, more than 1,600 institutions were open around the country. Many of these were supported partly by public funding but were run by various religious orders. The Catholic Church was one such organization. It is estimated that in the 20th century alone, more than five million American children passed through orphanages.
Many Forms
The abuse at St. Joseph’s is not a singular instance either. With so many organizations and orphanages across the country, it is reasonable to believe that a good number of them might have been improperly managed. And it’s not just poor hygiene, sub-par healthcare, and underfeeding, but actual physical, mental, and in some cases, sexual abuse.
Tales Across the Country
Tales of abuse are eerily similar across the United States and throughout different organizations. Some people who grew up in the system explain that they were made to kneel or stand for hours, often with their arms straight out, sometimes holding heavy items or their own shoes. There are even tales of children forced to eat disgusting things at the nun’s insistence, such as vomit.
Tons of Abuses
There are even scarier tales of children dangled upside down out of windows, or over wells and laundry shoots. It is also thought that children were locked in cabinets, attics, basements, or outhouses, sometimes for days at a time. Children were separated from their siblings permanently as punishment, sexually abused, or mutilated for no reason whatsoever.
Tales of Sorrow
Perhaps the darkest stories of all come from people like Sally of St. Joseph’s, who saw children defenestrated. Many children who entered orphanages like St. Joseph’s never actually left them alive. Many were considered “natural” deaths or were attributed to accidents, but if the stories are to be believed, then it was the staff who ran these places, nuns and priests that caused these deaths.
Outside the US
This sort of thing doesn’t just happen in the United States, either. The UK, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and Australia have all faced multiple government inquiries concerning the mistreatment and alleged abuse of children in orphanages, many of them Catholic orphanages. Some of what these inquiries have uncovered has been just as shocking as the abuses in the U.S. as well.
Depravity
One such inquiry from 1998 cited “exceptional depravity” at four homes run by the Christian Brothers order in Australia. Apparently, a boy at the home was the object of a rather disturbing competition between the brothers. The bet was to see who could sexually abuse him 100 times. This is a prime example of how this abuse can be more dangerous when it becomes systemic.
Rarely Prosecuted
Unfortunately, despite all the strides made in other parts of the world, the United States has seen no such reform. The tales told about the orphanages in this country are rare, and many of the former residents have gone on with their lives and forgotten it. There have been a few instances where settlements were made privately, but governing bodies have rarely pursued past hearing the allegations.
Joseph Barquin
That was all before Joseph Barquin, a former orphan who chose to speak out when his new wife was shocked by the horrible scars to his genitals. According to him, a nun at St. Joseph’s had dragged him into a back room, forcibly fondled him, and cut his groin with something sharp when she was done. He buried the incident for years, but finally, after coming to terms with it, decided he wanted justice.
Other Abuses
He remembered other children being beaten senseless and even one girl being thrown down a flight of stairs to her death. It was because of Barquin that Sally Dale had come forward. The first lawyer Barquin asked for help decided they needed more witnesses. He wanted to hear what the other orphans had to say about the abuses at St. Joseph’s, so he contacted dozens of others, all who came forward to tell their stories.
Difficult Case
Unfortunately, even though the group of survivors had found each other and grown closer because of their shared trauma, all of the assaults had happened so long ago. Corroboration aside, prosecuting the diocese and many of the nuns was going to be difficult. Priests had been known as sexual predators, but convincing a jury that nuns were too, was going to be hard.
Twists and Turns
It was three years and two lawyers later when the diocese finally decided to resolve Barquin’s suit through private mediation. They didn’t want to risk they story being talked about in open court. Barquin and his fellow complainants had become a thorn in the church’s side and they weren’t going away. Despite some ups and downs between them, the former orphans came together under Barquin and told their stories.
Brutal Tales
Many of them spoke of dead children, of kids thrown out of windows, pushed into frozen lakes, or tied to trees and left to freeze overnight. There were even stories of infants smothered in their cribs by nuns. It was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. There was one problem though, there was no way to prove that all these stories were true.
Another World
In the end, finding the truth about what really happened all those years ago is nearly an impossible task. The eerie world extant in many of these century-old Catholic orphanages is one that few people are aware of. Orphanages, even the well-known ones, were walled-off from the rest of society. No one knew what happened inside of them and most people didn’t want to know.
Decades of Doubt
It took decades for Sally, Barquin, and the other survivors to talk about what had happened. They received little more for their trouble than some conciliatory hush money and a meaningless apology from the Catholic church and the diocese. News of these atrocities finally coming to light has helped give all those who suffered from abuse a chance to heal.
More Grim Revelations Involving the Catholic Church Come to Light is an article from: LifeDaily