A bunch of frustrated women taking out their frustrations on children and teenagers. The abusers and abused were both the subjects of injustice.

The Roman Church is continuing the criminal tradition of the rotten, acquisitive empire that spawned it in the fourth century when the thug emperor, Constantine, created it and suppressed the evolving religions of the people. The history of brutal suppression of religion along with rational thought continued for centuries and did not begin to crack until Martin Luther and King Henry of England broke ranks with it a thousand years later. Its habit of allying itself with corrupt, brutal regimes has continued until our times and is reflected in the back trail of its current Pope. Of course it is unsurprising that it retains an ingrained sense of entitlement to use captive children as punching bags and playthings. Stories may yet emerge of similar brutality towards children in the Eastern Orthodox church which, like the Roman church, has a long record of tyranny in alliance with thug regimes.

Adele, would the girls have been better off staying where they were?

Hasbeen, that is a stupid question and you should know better than asking it. They would of course been much better off if they had been treated humanely, instead of which the Catholic Church treated "fallen women" and illegitimate children as pariahs to whom no mercy or forgiveness should be given.

Davidf. You are right. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church of the day didn't treat the misguided females who forsook everything to serve their God, much better than those poor unfortunates who were in their care. To those women it also should be forced to make an apology and provide some compensation. It seems to be incapable of providing real compassion except occasionally at the parish level.

David

Davidf

'A bunch of frustrated women taking out their frustrations on children and teenagers.'

Why is it that we don't apply the 'frustrated men' trope to the abuse committed by priests and brothers? It's assumed that these men are simply being evil or mean rather than succumbing to frustration.

The assumption for nuns, however, is that the abuse they commit is the result of living an unnatural existence devoid of sexual/reproductive fulfillment - i.e. not being someone's wife or mother.

Certainly, the lives of nuns and priests in earlier times (not so much today) were not exactly 'normal' but they WERE voluntary - so the 'frustration' theory doesn't really add up.

The past abuse committed in all institutional contexts - Catholic or otherwise - had a lot more to do with the wider repressive social attitudes of the times. These were times that demanded total obedience to authority and treated poverty, vulnerability and 'difference' as crimes deserving of punishment or self-inflicted failure needing 're-education'.

Emperor Julian

'...the rotten, acquisitive empire that spawned [the Roman Church] in the fourth century when the thug emperor, Constantine, created it and suppressed the evolving religions of the people.'

Great summary! I often wonder what kind of a culture the West might have evolved into had the pagans won. I also believe that, for all its achievements, Western culture is pretty mixed up psychically speaking, and that this stems from being so violently disconnected from its ancient pagan spirituality.

The issue with all subjects such as this is balance. This is lacking both in the article and in many of the comments. I suspect that most readers have little or no knowledge of the Good Shepherd Sisters other than that derived from the article.

The title accuses the leader of the order in Australia of denying history, yet the article is clear that it is a case of omission in one particular summary document, which is quite different to denial.

I do agree that there is much to be deplored in how Magdalene laundries, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters and other Catholic orders, denied basic rights to many under their control. The Senate Report (referred to in the article) highlighted abuses in a wide range of Catholic and non-Catholic institutions and had little particular focus on Good Shepherd Sisters.

Magdalene laundries originally achieved notoriety in Ireland and were the subject of both an official government inquiry and an apology from the Irish Prime minister. What is notable about the inquiry is that despite countless sad stories of exploitation and abuse of women in these institutions, a large majority of the women who shared their stories with the Inquiry said that they had neither experienced nor seen other girls or women suffer physical abuse in the Magdalene Laundries.

For balance, the following article is worth a read: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/02/25/the-magdalen-laundries-were-used-as-reformatories-where-girls-were-sent-without-due-process-but-they-were-not-brutal-anti-catholics-have-lied-about-them/