For at least eight years, victims of child molesting nuns and members of SNAP have repeatedly urged America's largest organization of nuns to expose the truth about child sex crimes and cover ups by women religious. But the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) continues to essentially rebuff us and them.
Now more than ever, since they're being attacked by bishops like we have been (and are being), nuns should be sympathetic to our plight. It grieves us to have to keep prodding them to take long-overdue, simple steps to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. But how can we do otherwise?
Contact: Mary Dispenza
Phone: (425) 644-2468
Email: mcdispenza@comcast.net
- 2002 - LCWR refuses to participate in USCCB’s “Policy for the Protection of Children”
- April 5, 2002 - LCWR issues statement on clerical abuse
- August 24, 2002 - LCWR National Board issues statement on sexual abuse
- June 12, 2004 - Nun survivors meet for the first time in Denver at SNAP Conference
- July 13, 2004 - Hand-delivered to LCWR and USCCB from nun survivors regarding Plan of Hope, Respect, and Open Healing. Also requested nun survivors be allowed to speak at LCWR-CMSM Joint Assembly in Ft. Worth. To date, we received no answer from USCCB.
- August 5, 2004 - Letter to LCWR from SNAP expressing dismay over their decision not to let us speak
- August 9, 2004 - E-mail to National Review Board to intervene on our behalf
- August 13, 2004 - LCWR Press Release: Response of LCWR President Sister Constance Phelps, SCL saying we can’t speak in Ft. Worth
- August 19 to 22, 2004 - Joint LCWR – CMSM Assembly in Ft. Worth, TX. Nun survivors attempt to attend event but are refused.
- October 3, 2004 - Meeting with LCWR Leadership in Chicago
- November 22, 2004 - LCWR letter to SNAP refusing to work with SNAP members who are survivors of sexual abuse committed by nuns and sisters
- August 2, 2005 - Not allowed to speak at LCWR National Conference in Aneheim, CA; we are present – we delivered letter
- August 17, 2006 - Not allowed to speak at LCWR National Conference in Atlanta, GA; we are present – we delivered letter
- August 24, 2007 - LCWR contacts us to meet to talk but LCWR does not provide an agenda after numerous requests; Not allowed to speak at LCWR National Conference in Kansas City
- September 19, 2007 - LCWR responds to SNAP, denying all five requests
- August, 2008 - LCWR rebuffs us via letter; SNAP holds night-time vigil
- October 9, 2008 - SNAP meets with Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in St. Louis; requests are denied
- February 23, 2009 - SNAP asks to speak at the LCWR conference in New Orleans
- March 26, 2009 - LCWR denies all of SNAP's requests
- August 11, 2009 - Not allowed to speak at LCWR Conference in New Orleans; we deliver letter
- August 14, 2010 - Not allowed to speak at LCWR Conference in Dallas; we are present
- August 16, 2011 - LCWR National Conference in Garden Grove, California
- August 7, 2012 - LCWR National Conference in St Louis; SNAP members deliver letter and hold vigil
Letter sent to bishops:
Aug. 8, 2012
Dear Archbishop Sartain Bishop Blair, Bishop Paprocki
We write you with great sadness and reluctance. Each of you, like most of your colleagues, has done a poor job of dealing with child sex abuse and cover up. Still, each of you have a chance to prod US nuns to do a better job in this regard. For the sake of prevention, healing, openness and justice, we hope you seize this opportunity.
We have little faith in "internal" church "investigations" and reports on clergy sex crimes and cover ups. We have even less faith when they're conducted by bishops or “outside” firms hand-picked and hired by bishops.
Still, something is often better than nothing. That’s the case today with abuse and cover up by nuns. Right now, there's very little known about child sex crimes and cover ups by nuns. No one's apparently trying to learn more. And as best we can tell, no one inside or outside of the nuns’ community is trying to prod them to do a better job of protecting the vulnerable and healing the wounded.
So with considerable reluctance and distrust, we're asking you to expand your “oversight” of the LCWR into what the organization – and America’s religious orders of women- are doing and are not doing regarding child sex crimes and cover ups by nuns.
Why does this matter? Because we believe that
- many abusive nuns have never been exposed or disciplined.
- many who have seen, suspected or hidden their crimes have similarly never been exposed or disciplined
- many who were abused by nuns have coped by essentially denying and mischaracterized the crimes they suffered, and minimizing the impact of those crimes, so they suffer in confusion, denial, isolation, shame and self-blame.
We suspect that fewer nuns molest than priests. (Research suggests that more men are sexual predators.) At the same time, however, that’s just speculation. And regardless of the rates or percentages of abuse, two other facts are important. First, there are more nuns than priests. (55,944 nuns in the US versus 41,406 priests) Second, many more nuns had more access to more kids, largely because they worked and work in schools.
Ultimately, however, the numbers or percentages are not especially relevant. If there are 400 or 4,000 or 40,000 adults who were victimized by nuns in this country, every single one of them deserves help. And if there are 4 or 40 or 400 children who may be victimized in the future by nuns in this country, they need protection.
Again, we take this step with great sadness and reluctance. Everyone knows most nuns don’t commit or conceal child sex crimes. Everyone knows that most nuns do wonderful, selfless work, often to help society’s marginalized.
But we see little or no evidence that nuns – either in or through the LCWR or their individual orders – are in any way, shape or form “trailblazers” in making the church or our society safer from clergy child predators or making substantial contributions to the healing of those who suffer because of clergy child predators.
It’s a painful truth to acknowledge. It’s unusual and unsettling for us to seek your help in dealing with it. But our concern – for the vulnerable and the wounded – and our inability to get the LCWR to be more pro-active, leave us with few other options.
Click HERE to download a .zip archive of correspondence between SNAP and the LCWR, SNAP and LCWR press releases, and other coverage of the groups (4.76 mb)
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values bases on money and power.
I will never get back what they have destroyed in my life. They certainly have more than enough money to take responsibility for the sexual crimes they have committed and the education that they did not give us.
If anyone is interested in going to the US Department of Education with these issues, please help me form a group.
Thank you for your time,
Marcene Magadance Diocese of Lacrosse Eau Claire, WIS
WHY does the Wisconsin Department of Education Never hold this institution morally and Financially Responsible. The Catholic experience and powerful support it receives from citizens with wealth builds absolutes not minor rules.
They owe me 12 years of excellent education – not theirs. I did nothing to them. And this church encouraged a lot sexual abuse in families and neighborhoods. All but 2 priests were chasing girls and boys to rape and sexualize them in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. And all of the nuns I knew were running the schools and covering up for the guys – their priest – brothers. These nuns were submitting false education documents to Departments of Education all over the country. I really do believe that these women are incest survivors and that they were very ill and lost their way. But the fact remains – they were put in charge of keeping students safe and not commit sexual crimes against them. The true purpose of being a student in a school is to become well educated.
It is time for the Catholic Church to repair the damage they did to me.
If anyone else has been hurt at St. Patrick’s grade school and Regis grade school in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I would to give you support and receive from you. Thank you for your attention and time.
Marcene Magadance
The thing to keep in mind regarding that community is that it was not universally governed by a central authority. The community was founded with the hope of being very small communities serving independently in their local parishes, in old Celtic spiritual models. However, Roman bishops forced them into a more hierarchical model of a superior general (motherhouse) over many convents—like most orders. Here in the USA, the Mercies chose one of two directions. Half went with what was called “the union” which amounted to provinces including many areas and convents. Half went with a more localized structure—i.e. by dioceses alone (sticking as much as possible with their foundress’ original desire for local autonomy). The latter were then very independent, and so their spirit reflected more of the local attitude regarding religious life (which also included how educated the sisters were, which CAN translate into less abuse). One group might consist of sisters who had little education—right up to their superiors, while another group (in a different diocese) had members who might have come primarily from educated Catholic families where religion was daily life AND sincere, and not just an empty cultural inheritance. THAT translates into how the individual sisters were spiritually formed, what behavioral expectations were, and whether they were truly spiritual or simply living in a safe haven away from the world. Each group was independent/diocesan in the latter half of Mercies, and that offered both good and bad possibilities depending upon the emphasis in their formation and religious life.
I was educated by Sisters of Mercy in the Brooklyn Diocese. They were part of those non-union Mercies (it sounds funny, but has nothing to do with “unions” as commonly understood). I had them for 12 years, during which I was sexually molested by one of them for a period of 4 years. I, myself, entered the Sisters of Mercy at the age of 20. Why? Well, it was something in my heart long before the abuse began, and I can honestly say that although I was abused by that one sister, I did not understand the dynamic of sexual abuse, the boundary issues, and all that is involved. I also never ever came across another sister like her among all those I knew and lived with. Did others exist? Maybe. Probably here and there. But I’d only met really good and spiritual sisters and if I met those who were dealing with mental disorders like depression, they were treated very kindly by the others. I got to know many good ones. (Sadly that kept me from addressing the abuse I’d suffered, but that’s another topic.)
What I’m saying is that the Brooklyn Mercies had a very real spiritual life and the priorities of formation were very spiritual. What was lacking (this is 40 years ago) was any attention to the reality that each woman was/is a sexual creature, and so there was no education of the young sisters regarding how to deal with sexuality when those needs arose, as they must in humans. Truly mature spiritual women turned to prayer and work and probably to spiritual directors for the strength to be chaste, while immature ones may not have even recognized the need to get help, or were too guilt-ridden by their very humanity to seek help. Those are the dangerous ones! There was no understanding among sisters of pedophilia or ephebophilia. NONE. But who among us understood those distinctions until we were educated by this horrible reality in our lives? All this was seen as sexual sin, and so it depended upon the honesty of each sister to deal with her sexuality in a mature way, or an immature way, then she lived accordingly, as a healthy loving sister, or a secretive sick abusive woman—abusing physically in classrooms, or sexually wherever she could get away with it.
Sisters of Mercy, until recently, were very independent with distinct groups with their own populations of diverse members. Now, here in the US, they have all united to be the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and very few independent groups left. That’s good and bad, but far more practical as far as supervision, and the formation of new members is concerned (IF they decide to get real and address sexuality and the issues that arise.)
Today, to address past abuses one needs to contact the local group where the wrong occurred, and I think—to hold them accountable—it would be advisable to confront the “home office” of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Frankly, as one who has done so, and is still in contact, I would not expect much.
The Irish situation was very different than ours here in the States. The British State and later the Irish State were in bed with the Church and their running of the industrial schools and workhouses. As a result the Irish State supported the investigations over the past several years. The people of Ireland had enough of Catholic bullying too, which made them more receptive to confrontation of abusive clergy and religious than we find here in America, sadly. The Irish situation has more in common with our Native Tribes and the abuse they suffered in their industrial schools that with the sexual abuse in local schools and parishes. Here is the website for the national group: http://www.sistersofmercy.org/ and here is the site for those in Northeastern USA: http://www.mercyne.org/index.php
I’d love to see all those with cases against the Mercies pull together to address them as a body.
-go to educating to end abuse .com and find the interview of peggy warren and story about gilbert-bonneau— he was murdered-in 1953 and they got a site for him justice for gilbert— but i think when they exhumed his body it was so bad off they could not fully prove it but the death cer-was forged- —You don’t hear about nuns murdering children because the children died and neither they nor their families talked. Rarely, a child escapes with his life or a murder is witnessed. At three and a half years old I was living at the St. Agnes home for children in Sparkill, New York. It was run by Dominican nuns. One of them smothered me with a pillow and thinking I was dead, called an ambulance. I wasn’t dead but in a coma that lasted almost a year and I am permanently brain damaged. Gilbert Bonneau was also smothered with a pillow like I was — by a nun at St. Colman’s home in Watervliet, New York. He was in a coma and died – but there was a witness who saw the nun straddle Gilbert and smother him. This eye witness who was physically abused by the nuns is still alive. He relives this evil and it has ruined his life. Gilbert’s family has tried for years to get justice for Gilbert but haven’t succeeded because of a church that knows no mercy. We will never know how many children were smothered by nuns or if they are still killing children in isolated places like church-run homes and Third World countries. If you know of children who died while being “cared” for by nuns or clergy please speak out – publicizing what they did is the only way to stop them. I have written about SNAP and their role in helping me and so many others. The statutes may run out but if enough of us talk about what happened there will be justice. I am writing about the evil deeds of nuns and clergy on my blog: catholicchurchabusebynunsandpriests.blogspot.com.
-email me at richardbonnie@att.net——i can find out thing for you—skeltons of small children were found inside walls and under floorboards—THIS WAS A CATHOLIC NUN CONVENT—EXPOSE?? MURDER TOO?? iTHINK SO.-‘they use your words against you’ but never said-we told you so—they are so kind and good to me—--and these people who was a cannon lawyer and president of convent had the nerve to say ’i had no proof ’ it sickened me so much – they just said ’it was so long ago; ’ yea sure -this nun poisen in my food-that almost killed me at 8—then the nun had me touch her-then say the goverment would take me away if i would not do what she asked— then she came into our home over 15 times and one authority just said—‘that does not fit the legal term for abuse’ they are liers—and just plain abusers who NOW AFTER 1962 STILL PROTECT—and the church officals lied -to the point that named a school near new orleans that she was in at TIME OF MY ABUSE1962— 63 they the school informed me last month-;she was NEVER THERE AT ANY POINT-I dont know if david can help me get this to media put someone who still protects abusers after 40 years must not be reliable to be president of a conventI, also, experienced physical violence, in the school, I mentioned, in my last story. (St. Francisis of Assisi Parish, now Divine Mercy, in Vineland, NJ) Here is my story: During my schooling in the 8th grade, the nuns and teachers came up with a morning routine, they wanted us kids to follow. First thing, as the school day started, we were given song sheets and asked to line up in the hallway (there was only K-8th grade, one classroom each), so the line extended right down the center of the school hallway. We were to all sing together, a song or two, to start off our day. One day, toward the end of my 8th grade year, we were lining up for the ritual. Unfortuately, for me, a friend, goofing around in the class took my songsheet, so I did not have one. Kids were lining up, so I joined the line without a songsheet, figuring, what did it matter, I was singing. During the song, our 8th grade teacher, a nun named Siser DC, came up to me and told me to go back to the classroom. I resisted a bit, wondering why, but I went back. She sent others back, as well, for various reasons. Well, after the singing was done and everyone back in the classroom, those of us that were told, to return and sit were each given a punishment. We were told to write the songsheet out a couple of time. When she (the nun), got to me and told me to write the sheet out two or three times (?), I spoke up and questioned her. I asked “Why?” This started to anger her and she said, “You did not have your song sheet”. I did want to say my friend had jokingly taken it, so I said, “What does it matter, I was singing?” The arguement began to escalate until she said, “Well, maybe, you shouldn’t be going to school here.” I stood up, upset, and agreed, and said, “Maybe, I shouldn’t”. I was upset and starting to make my way to the classroom door, I wanted to get out of there. Sister DC, became very anger and smacked me right across the mouth. At that point, (knowing what I know now), I would decsribe the feeling I had as sirreal. Everything went into slow motion, I was shaking and I clenched my fist and punched her back, right in the stomach. She turned to the class and said, “Did everyone, see that, she hit me, she hit me.” I ran out the classroom door and down the hall to the principal’s office (another nun). The kids in the classroom were chanting “Run, Annette, run” and Sister DC was running down the hallway after me. I ran as fast as I could, so I could get to the principal before Sister DC got ahold of me. My grandmother was called in, and I was suspended for a day but still allow to graduate the 8th grade.
I know the story in long, but my point, in all of this is the PHYSICAL VIOLENCE. I’ve been reading some articles relating to sexuality and the RC hierarchy, and all I can say is, I’m back to the sexual frustration of these women. I believe it leads to PHYSICAL VIOLENCE!!! When one is sexually happy and satisfied, they are not so easy to anger and become violent. The church teaching celibasy if fundamentally wrong. It goes against NATURE’S WAY!!! Going against nature’s way, is never a good idea.