Posted on 08/28/2018 8:14:22 AM PDT by MeganC
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at buzzfeednews.com ...
Vivid memories of the head nun at the Catholic school I attended for several years. She had a VERY short temper and would frequently grab a student by the back of the neck and smush her/his face into the blackboard so that they could “get a better look” at the math problem. Being slapped in the face by her was common. She used to spit when she scolded you face to face and you didn’t DARE try to wipe it away! As a former teacher myself, I believe that many of them just didn’t have the patience or temperament for teaching children but it was expected of them anyway. Out of all of the nuns that were there, I can say I only remember one who was kind.
They were unhappy women who didn’t even want to be nuns-—and felt they were stuck.
.
HEY! That’s Sister Katherine Marie!
My daughter went to Catholic schools for 16 years. The one operated by an order of sisters was the one she loved the most of the three. They were lefty sisters but she saw right through that and just enjoyed their kindness and dedication.
I knew the Sisters of Charity through catechism classes. Never went to a Catholic school. They were especially nice to me. I have nothing bad to say about them.
My heart aches for you and those who think the same. Please know that this is NOT Christianity - far from it! Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matthew 11:28,29). Those who presume to act for Jesus Christ and behave in that way are evil and their actions prove they work for Satan, NOT Jesus. They will face a severe judge at their death who will deal with them as one unto whom nothing is hidden and ALL is laid bare. I shudder for their eternity!
I will pray for you that you are freed from the pain of the terrible things done to you and that you find rest for your soul. Jesus loves you and He can heal your heart.
*Hugs*
I agree that the Roman Catholic Church has in the past been treated unfairly. I also love our Catholic FRiends and I pray for their church every day that it can be saved from the enemies who are tearing it apart from within.
The growing list of stories like this speak to a condition in their church that needs to be addressed with prayer, deep scrutiny, and it also requires external accountability.
The church, like many police agencies, cannot be taken seriously anymore when they investigate their own actions.
And ultimately the institution of the RCC is going to face the most harm from dwindling memberships and legal costs.
I pray they find the strength of will to root out the evil in their presence and cast it out of their body.
Kindest regards,
Megan
You know, if we were making stuff up to accuse Roman Catholicism with, that’d be one thing.
Guess who is giving people all the ammo they need to *bash* the *church* with?
And since when is denouncing sin *bashing* anyways? Aren’t WE always the ones being accused of cheap grace and easy believism?
Riiiight….it’s ALL a made up, fake, Catholic-bashing hit piece! Nothing happened. The nuns were pure as the driven snow only wanting what was best for the little children put in their care. The accusers just want to steal money from the deep pocketed RCC, right? Tell me, where do you get those rose-tinted glasses?
Kids don’t usually concoct DETAILED accounts of bad experiences. Nor do they tend to stick to their stories after numerous people question them. When they corroborate the stories of others and there aren’t contradictions even after years, you can pretty much decide that they are telling the truth about what happened. Their accounts are credible and damning about those religious people who were charged with their care. The consolation is that NOTHING is hidden with God and all will be laid bare. There is no escaping His judgment.
Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Some of the things the kids recounted would NEVER have been made up by kids. Especially the sexual abuse ones and the descriptions given.
If a kid is going to try to get someone in trouble, they are not going to make up stories of someone putting their hands where they don’t belong and describe sexual experiences and reactions.
They might make up hitting, or like that story recently about some guy peeing on the girl, but even then, they’d have to get the idea somewhere.
Too many people who don’t know each other, from different areas of the country and world recount chillingly similar tales of abuse.
And I will continue to condemn it and if someone wants to play the martyr and cry *bashing*, well, again, they need to remember who gave everyone the material to *bash* with.
Whoever thought you’d see the day when condemning sin is called *bashing*?
It’s like the Twilight Zone.
Remember, if you will, that Jesus Christ our Savior never once heard a grand pipe organ, never had himself draped in silks and damask and gold chains, never used a microphone to talk to the thoudands gathered on the hillsides of the sea of Galilee, and walked most places, most of his life. His apostles whose names most Christians know and give to many of their children were mostly laborers. Yet their words, and the Words they reported Him to have said, are with us these 2000 years later.
Don't think about church as a building or a dogma or an organization. Think of Jesus as the very God who reached out to you in human form so that you could have assurance that, if you believe He is God, you can have forgiveness, mercy, grace, peace and life eternal. Church is everyone who has heard the Words of the carpenter and believes them, and asks Him to be their personal Savior. That is all. It is enough.
Thank you for your beautiful and powerful words.
I was going to ask you “should I go to Mass,” but I know already know the answer to that.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. You aren’t alone. It happened to me, too. The cardinal told my father there was nothing they could do, it was my word against the priest’s, and of course no one would believe a priest would do such a thing.
That reminds me of an old joke:
A nun, a nurse in a Catholic hospital, peeks into the room of a mother and baby on the Neonatal Unit. "Oh, what a lovely sweet child!" she coos. "Is this your first?""No, Sister," said the patient. "It's my sixth!"
"Your sixth baby!" exclaimed the nun. "That's wonderful! What a lovely Catholic family!"
"Oh, no, Sister," said the woman. "We're Protestant. This was the closest hospital..."
"Humph!" said the nun. "Sex fiend!"
I'm going to venture a guess here that it is a complex response to a flawed heirarchal system. Women (I believe that as a group they are referred to as Religious Sisters or simply "Religious") have traditionally been second-tier in the RCC. The intake of Religious aspirants is not just females with a true calling, but also (in those pre-birth-control or rhythm method days of huge Catholic families), girls who are essentially unwanted in their teeming, strained households, or girls who are coerced by their prestige- or influence-seeking families to join an order, or girls who are sexually fearful or disordered, or older siblings who were pressed into raising their many younger siblings and do not want to be married, or an overpopulation of single women made redundant by war, or poor girls who seek a convent for a place of refuge—especially in those earler days of no opportunity for women other than marriage to the unappealing local yokel. They are often very young on entering convent life and haven't fully matured emotionally or sexually -- which for girls usually takes place later than for boys. After some years of personal loneliness grind on, the community's unwanted orphans are easy targets for their frustration and rage.
Especially the aspirants who seek the imagined perfection of religious ecstacy as an escape from a dreary or abusive homelife, young nuns enter into a rigid situation with impossibly high standards, become disillusioned, and have no depth of compassion, since little has been shown to them. Over the years, certain orders or institutions such as the ones in this article become fiefdoms of a cruel administration of cold-hearted mothers superior or priests, and develop a culture of casual cruelty to the vulnerable children dependent on them, children with no allies in life. Some sisters grew up with neglect, disdain or cruelty, so they pass it down the line to defenseless pupils or orphans.
I'm not talking about all Religious Sisters by any means. We had a wonderful Medical Mission Sister as a childcaregiver in our home. But it's not hard to imagine that in past years, these walled institutions could operate like islands, and some of the troublesome children simply got voted off. With no background in psychological therapeutic methods and dealing with a population of emotionally deprived and damaged children, and with no accountability in some of these places, shockingly indifferent or depraved-rage murders could take place. There are lots more orphans where those came from, so "at this point, what difference does it make?"
I read the whole thing. It is very even-handed, and there are numerous supporting refereces, testimony and documents including newspaper clippings of the deaths of children shown with the article. The author researched this piece extensively and writes in scrupulous detail. It is very, very sad; but as others have noted, it's not all nuns or sisters and not in all locations.
Systems fail; and massive systems fail massively.
Come, Lord Jesus.
I would say, read the Bible. Get a modern translation like the New Living Translation and read it alongside your Catholic Bible or King James Bible, to get a clearer meaning from the contemporary language alongside the resonant poetry of the traditional version. No need to rush; just read a chapter a day. It will all start to make sense, now that you are an adult and can appreciate the depth of human passion and folly. If you are unfamiliar, start with the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. God speaks to us through the scriptures.
Once you become familiar with the scriptures, many things start to make sense, no matter whether you choose to attend an RC church or an evangelical one, or a small prayer group of Bible believers. At His trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. I came to bring truth to those who can hear the truth.” Trust God, pray to be led where He wants you to go, and just try things.
Father God,
Mighty Creator, Loving Lord,
Bring the truth of the gospel into Steely Tom’s awareness. Bring Christ-believers alongside to give him guidance, and bring opportunities to sample good communities of believers. Create in him forgiveness and the freedom to seek You where You may be found.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Boys; you shouldn’t talk to the Penguin that way.
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