Yes, these sisters know there were cruel women among them and they live that sense of betrayal very painfully. Anyone who suffers from it can rest easy in at least knowing they're not alone, and when KQED looked at why so many horror movies feature nuns, they found that part of it was the secrecy of convents that put the fear of God into people.. It's been that way for a long, long time way back in . I was terrified 24 hours a day. Thank God they chose the nuns. First off I'd change that to SOME nuns, not all. Oberon Copeland is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, with a degree in economics and HR. There was nothing unusual about it. Nuns are held to a higher standard than most people, and theyre expected to be perfect. I thought bugger that, I'm saying my piece.". I don't think you answered the question "Why were some nuns cruel". You believe the bibles the word of god? 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. (11 Reasons Why). Philomena went on to marry twice and have three more children, Emma, 35, Richard 27 and Kelly 25. Nuns are no different; however, we choose not to act upon these natural, sexual feelings and urges. October 2018 When isolated from what many others are enjoying (marriage, having children, etc. The tank previously believed to have held victims of the Irish famine of the 1840s was on the property of a "mother and baby home" run by the Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961; while . It can also lead to nuns acting out in ways that are considered cruel. She lived at Nazareth House homes in Newcastle and Carlisle until she was 13, in 1944. "You were thrashed about the feet, head and hands, you had your hair pulled and your head bounced off the walls. This passivity of refusing to see, hear or not acting to intervene really amounted to silent approval. By Sue Lloyd Roberts. In her absence, Philomena says, the parish priests took the children into the industrial schools, with the girls entering the Good Shepherd in Waterford. For William, now 54, the trauma of the abuse haunts him in every waking moment. Its no wonder nuns can be so cruel. "She especially hated me. Physical violence was allowed and was encouraged by the frustrated Nuns in all the Institutions in order to get the upper hand - literally and brutally - by striking blows with hands, feet, sticks, chains, metal objects or whatever else came to hand. It can also lead to nuns taking their frustration out on others. The stigma that nuns are cruel is somewhat of a misnomer. They became boarders while in Secondary School and then joined up they would have no idea for the most part about sexuality's. "Looking back, I think they really despised the children. Its not easy to always be modest. Celibacy is NOT normal for humans. Nuns used crucifixes to rape little girls or forced boys to have sex with them, too. One of these burst and burnt my foot badly, leaving a permanent scar. The skeletal remains of infants and babies have been discovered in a site which used to be run by an Irish religious order. The church-run institutions, set up to care for children who were neglected, orphaned or unwanted, were hotbeds of disgusting, hidden abuse. 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. November 2020 "One of the worst things that ever happened to me was being locked in a cupboard as a punishment. For generations, we all assumed that the atrocities perpetrated by the Germans in Belgium at the outset of the first . So nuns did their best to keep you from committing a mortal sin and their way of doing that was to enforce a sort of discipline by various means of which some were mean like hitting your knuckels with a ruler. Why are Nuns so mean? If you were scrubbing the floor and looked up you could get a whack over the head or even be kneed in the face. Nuns used to be cruel; that much is true. My sister was born and adopted in the US and her birth mom reported being treated badly by the Nuns at the place where she went while pregnant. This caused a huge strain on me.. It's easy! I was sent to clean her office and if she decided I didn't clean it properly she would start banging my head against the wall. In some cases the Nuns even used their long heavy-duty wooden rosary beads to beat the slave women or the children. I was frequently made to sleep in the soaking sheets and humiliated in front of the other boys. February 2020 A few days later, William was told his brother had died although he is now convinced this was untrue. Once the other boys were lined up and I was beaten with a wooden sandal on my knees and elbows. My Grandmother has told me many stories of the evil nuns. A nun all of a sudden picked the kid up, carried him to the door, then slammed the door into his head. It is a greater act of contempt than striking the face because it emphasises the asymmetry between the torturer and her victim. Ya the pope is the boss speaking for god. I endured all their frustrations directly with violence, beatings, rapes, and mental trauma. "I left when I was 13 with a terrible stammer that I am sure must have been because of living in fear of the nuns. For other inquiries, Contact Us. This can lead to a lot of unresolved issues, and these issues can eventually turn into anger and resentment. For decades, "bad" Irish girls were sent away to convent-run laundries, where they worked for no pay in awful conditions for years on end. My time there has deeply affected my life. FOR Vera Willshire, who is now 75, the year 1939 was one of the happiest of her life. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Why Are Bartenders So Rude? But many nuns never had the chance to break the cycle. My grandmother, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles cousins ect ect, were mostly raised in the Cotholic Missions on different Indian Reservations. It was a very spartan regime. It is also a powerful order across the world, and its published accounts show it is worth pounds 154m. September 2018 In my school the nuns, well a few of them were mean. I certainly didnt need any time to reflect on my own experience of cruel Irish Nuns.. After all, I was nine years with the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in Dublin in both a Mother and Baby Home, St. Patricks on the Navan Road where I was born and spent the first four years of my life, and for five more years at St Philomena's Home, Stillorgan. After Duplessis received the provincial Church . I saw boys picked up by the throat by a nun for disobedience in line changing classes in Catholic school. The Widow's Pension did not come in til 1934. More than 400 former residents are planning to sue the order over what they claim was cruel, unnecessary and harmful treatment suffered at the hands of the Sisters. To hide injuries from visitors, children were shut into a "black hole" without bedding, ventilation or light. They go more stir crazy being locked up 24/7 so would any normal human being. Part of being human is being a sexual person humans are attracted to other people, have romantic feelings and sexual urges. July 2018 Gods truth? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The scenes from a cruel school for indigenous young women run by the sadistic nun Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and a strap-happy and possibly pervy priest, Father Renaud (Sebastian Roch), were . Yet the harsh conditions of the Tuam home meant the infant. January 22, 2011 in Spirituality, Religion and Beliefs. Nuns Break COVID Rules to Attend Exorcism. Not a day went by without someone getting a battering. October 2020 The punishment was being forced to stand in front of a nun's cell with the soiled linen on your head or being sat in the galvanized steel bath while two assistants poured buckets of cold water over your head. She was told to go away, that we were wards of court, even though that wasnt true. It was considered very prestigious to have a daughter become a Nun as was having a son in the Priesthood. Why Are Nuns So Cruel? This can lead to a cycle of cruelty thats hard to break. We were beaten with big sticks - the bigger the better. (11 Reasons Why), Why Are Vegans So Entitled? Some thuggish Nuns who worked in the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions were notorious for hitting the enslaved women and children for no reason, even beating some to death. You are right nuns are human like you and everyone else. The babies were usually. I was five years of age. For the barbarous Nuns who lived there and in other Institutions, they were a great place in which to eat, drink, work and play once you locked the slaves away at night as any competent slave trader and owner would do. Keep on seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. They had no rights, were (still are to some degree) exposed to all sorts of abuse of the Catholic hierarchy, who always were their superior and who always has to be present to some degree because women can't do things by themselves in Catholicsm by design. But it was all in the interest of getting you into heaven. Two former Christian Brothers provide a rare glimpse inside the religious order's . July 2021 Orphans, abandoned babies and children deemed uncontrollable or accused of petty crimes were all put in the hands of the nuns who, to the outside world, epitomised kindness and compassion. The helpless lad and his severely-disabled sibling had been left alone with the sickening pair for the entire weekend, in the most horrific chapter of his decade at one of Ireland's infamous industrial schools. It is now 37 years and it has been eating me up the whole time. "The only thing I learned to do there was fight, and when I come across a nun today I avoid them because I cannot be civil. 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. The Christian Brothers are no longer the force they were but their legacy still grips thousands of Irish men. The one thing that I have found from talking to them and from past stories they have told me before they died was the Nuns of the Caotholic Missions were always mean and abusive to the children. Born into Catholicism and devout as a child, I witnessed cruelty and abuse by Sisters of IHM. I was terrified the whole time and never had a happy day there. At Christmas there was jam. The innocent novice Nuns, with their good intentions, had no idea of what awaited them in the hellholes known as the Magdalene Laundries with their captive and illegally-held female slaves and their children who, although they had committed no crime, toiled there. Clodagh Kilcoyne via ReutersROME"Marie" was placed in a French Catholic boarding school for "young girls from good families" when she was in the fifth grade. He found refuge in the British army, where . "There were two slices of bread and dripping for breakfast, a ladle of soup at dinner and two more slices of bread and dripping in the evening. (7 Reasons Why), Why Are Harleys So Expensive? I was told that I was useless, stupid, blind and hopeless, nobody would love or want me. Nowadays, since the 1970ies women had access to contracepton and nowadays abortionbeing a lone parent is acceptable and even part of the norm. Does any of what these Nuns did sound righteous to you? Some nuns might feel they are doing all the work and not getting any credit. Any child caught speaking native was punished. Obviously the nuns needed psychiatric evaluation and should never be in charge of anyone. . "You could get hammered for anything. They were always calling us guttersnipes or scavengers and seemed to enjoy humiliating us. But the hearings were criticised as being harsh on the victims and William is angry that the survivors were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for the money they were offered. "I left the faith as a direct result and don't describe myself as a Catholic anymore. Its not easy being a nun. 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. The novice Nuns watched and learned from the older, more experienced Nuns, so that they too could attain the level of cruelty and depravity they daily saw being committed on the slave women and their fatherless children. Narcissists can use words as bullets, zeroing in on anything they can to unsettle and upset you. reflect on their experiences and this week's TRC report. Unforgiving. I think the average age for priests and nuns in the US today is like 70. We all knew it was going to be grim. It was thought to confer a higher social status for the family and to provide a degree of comfort for unmarried daughters. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. You could be hit for talking in church. The daily torturing and beating of the slave women and children enabled the cruelest of the Nuns to assert their place in the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions. "Twelve people . You could get beaten for nothing at all. To learn more, you can also read our posts on why 911 operators are so rude, why judges are so rude, and why cops are so rude. World Ireland Dublin. The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration are a. I think my time there has left deep scars. We could see each others suffering and pain, while they took turns to abuse both of us a few times over the weekend.. What gives? Its a shame that its like this. I remember we all did not want to leave the home in Brecon because the nuns there were so kind. Instead I was a child who was physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually abused.. Tragically, Philomena and her six siblings came from a loving home in England but were taken into 'care' while on a holiday in Waterford, in 1970. In May 1983, 12-year-old Thomas was taken to Lourdes, by the local charity the Order of Malta, who frequently arranged trips for disabled children. The religious habit was a distinctive set of clothing worn by members of a religious Order with the style and colour differentiating each Order. My heart was deeply touched by reading this article which reports the most horrifying cruelty to women and children. When I couldn't make out what they were saying they thought I was being cheeky and I got slapped and punched a lot. The Irish Brigade fought in most battles during the War of Spanish Succession, including the Battle of Ramillies in Central Belgium on May 23, 1706. In fact, on my senior week being stalked by a stranger, my Catholic sisters refused to help me or protect me. At least 20,000 Irish nuns served outside Ireland between 1800 and 1960. At one time, the training nuns received was outdated and very harsh. This can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety, leading to nuns taking their frustration out on others. "Bedwetting was about the worst thing you could do. Archaic teaching methods are now seen as barbaric. However, nuns arent the cruel teachers they used to be. 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