LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer
Eight more men who lived as children at Madonna Manor in the 1950s and 1960s have filed a new wave of lawsuits charging they were beaten and occasionally sexually molested at the Catholic institution.
The charges raise the total to 14 men who have filed public accusations of brutality or sexual molestation at the hands of nuns, priests, brothers and civilian staff at the Marrero facility. The home sheltered children from troubled or impoverished families as part of the charitable arm of the Catholic church.
The latest lawsuits were filed in four weeks in January and February. Six lawsuits were filed shortly before Hurricane Katrina.
The concentration of complaints against Madonna Manor is far higher than anything the Archdiocese of New Orleans has seen with regard to any other single institution or person in its experience with allegations of child sexual abuse.
Archdiocesan spokesman the Rev. William Maestri said the archdiocese is looking into the latest allegations.