CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 1, 2005
Women who say Roman Catholic sisters molested them as children asked Cardinal Francis George Tuesday to address their plight, saying the attention paid to abusive priests has overshadowed problems involving nuns.
The request stems from a lawsuit filed Tuesday against a religious order, alleging that one of its sisters repeatedly molested the plaintiff, Christine Bertrand, between 1962 and 1967 when she was a student at St. Juliana School in Chicago.
The nun named in the suit, Sister Benen Kent of the Third Order of St. Francis of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes, taught music at the school. The abuse allegedly continued after Kent was transferred to the order's headquarters in Rochester, Minn., where Bertrand's family would occasionally visit her.
Bertrand, 50, of Danville, Calif., said she did not speak up at the time and repressed the memories until 2002, when she and two other accusers, including her sister, approached the religious order. She said they declined an offer of $10,000 each to stay silent.