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Nuns payouts Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1270685a11,FF.htmlhttp://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1270685a11,FF.html
NATIONAL NEWS
SATURDAY, 20 JULY 2002
Nuns' order in secret payouts
18 JULY 2002
By YVONNE MARTIN
A group of 14 women who were beaten as girls at a Christchurch orphanage
have been secretly paid out by a Catholic order of nuns.
The Sisters of the Good Shepherd have paid out undisclosed sums of money and
given written apologies to the women acknowledging physical abuse at St
Joseph's orphanage in Halswell in the 1930s to 1950s.
Although 14 took part in a mediated settlement in December – 11 of them from
Christchurch – many more have alleged abuse at the hands of the sisters.
Several women approached by The Press said confidentiality clauses prevented
them from talking about their settlements.
It comes at a time when other Catholic orders facing abuse allegations,
including the St John of God Order which ran Marylands residential school
for boys, are abandoning secrecy clauses to enable victims to speak freely
of their ordeals.
Critics of secret agreements have argued that the Catholic Church has
effectively paid hush money to bury potential scandals. Clinical
psychologist Martin Visser has said confidentiality clauses imprisoned
victims in codes of silence and made healing difficult.
The sisters' cruel punishment of girls at the orphanage was the subject of a
television documentary five years ago. One woman spoke of being deliberately
burnt on the arm by a sister in the laundry when she was seven.
Others described being put in solitary confinement for up to 48 hours and
being virtual slaves – having to pick potatoes, clean pigstys, iron, and
clean the orphanage.
Victims said bed-wetting was an offence that brought heavy punishment. The
offender was forced to "parade" at breakfast with their soiled sheets
wrapped around their necks, and were dunked by older girls in the deep end
of a swimming pool.
Most of the girls were not orphans, but wards of the State or from families
who could not cope with them in hard economic times. It was common for
several children from the same family to end up in the nuns' care.
The Good Shepherd sisters released a statement at the time the allegations
were first raised, saying that the orphanage nuns were "over-zealous and
misguided". Hundreds of children went into the care of a handful of nuns
which was now considered "unreasonable".
The leader of the dwindling order in New Zealand, Sister Mary Feehan, did
not want to discuss the settlement.
"Matters such as these are private between individuals and the sisters and
it is inappropriate for the sisters to make any comment," she said. "I have
nothing further to add to that."
All the nuns involved in the orphanage allegations are now dead. The order
has only three nuns left doing community work in Auckland and a small number
of ageing nuns in care.
The order set up a freephone to help victims contact the nuns in mid-1997.
In November that year about 60 women, who had spent time in the orphanage,
met for their first reunion to discuss their childhood ordeals.
The Good Shepherd sisters were originally established in France in 1835,
mainly working with deprived women and children. They arrived in Melbourne,
Australia, in 1863 and in Christchurch about 20 years later. According to
the order's website, it worked over the decades to bring about change
through "kindness, encouragement, and firmness".
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