Complaints of Sex Abuse by Nuns Begin to Emerge
The Pain Is Strong for Accusers Just Coming to Terms
with What They Say Happened to Them

By Pamela Miller
Star Tribune
June 24, 2006

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/513614.html

[See also a web copy of the original print edition of this article. The print edition and the photos below were scanned from an original in the Susan Pavlak Collection. BishopAccountability.org is solely responsible for posting the images.]

Even now, decades later, the victims' voices falter as they describe the encounters that damaged them in ways they cannot fully cast off.

Mary Dunford tells of a molester visiting her dormitory bed when she was 15. Susan Pavlak speaks of the teacher who talked to her of love, then seduced her at 16. Siblings Christine Bertrand and Karen Britten and their childhood friend Patricia Schwartz describe how their piano teacher touched them in ways no adult should touch a child.

In each case, the perpetrator was, or recently had been, a Roman Catholic nun.

Christine Bertrand, Patricia Schwartz and Karen Britten with Sister Benen Kent at the nun's mother house in Rochester in 1967. Submitted photo.

The five women, who said they were abused in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, are among about a dozen Minnesotans and an estimated 400 women and men nationwide who have recently come forward to talk about being sexually abused by nuns.

Last month, Britten, 48, of Highland Park, Ill., and Schwartz, 51, of Eden Prairie, sued the Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester over alleged abuse by a nun in the 1960s. Bertrand, 51, of Sierra Madre, Calif., filed suit against the same nun last year.

Most reports of sexual abuse by nuns have emerged well after the surge of news about abuse by Catholic priests and brothers, and there is little evidence that abuse by nuns has continued. But survivors are increasingly coming forward to seek apologies and reparations.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who specializes in clergy sex-abuse cases, said he has received about a dozen plausible reports of abuse by nuns with Minnesota ties.

The issue, Anderson said, "has only been on my radar for a few years. We're likely to see more cases in the years to come."

Accusers interviewed for this story say they've come forward only recently because it took them years to fully remember or process the abuse and decide how to deal with it.

Sexual abuse by nuns has gone largely unaddressed and unreported until now in part because of cultural biases about gender roles and sex, say those knowledgeable about the cases. Women often abuse in seductive ways that silence and confuse victims, Anderson said.

And when abuse is alleged, it can be difficult for victims to assign accountability in the maze of 450 women's religious orders. The Catholic Church says it has no jurisdiction over the orders.

But slowly, more victims are telling their stories. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says it has received as many as 400 reports nationwide of sex abuse by nuns, "which probably just scratches the surface," said executive director David Clohessy.

Molested at boarding school

Dunford, now 67 and living in Eagan, was molested by a nun at the Villa Maria boarding school in Old Frontenac, Minn., in the early 1950s.

"It happened after lights-out," she said. "She'd kiss me on the mouth, then take her clothes off down to the waist and have me kiss and suck her nipples. She told me she loved me."

The experience "has profoundly affected my life," said Dunford, who graduated in 1956, married Dan Dunford in 1959 and raised three children. She couldn't talk about it, she said, until age 50, when she realized that the abuse lay at the root of her depression and other problems.

Pain and grief remain strong for Mary Dunford, 67, of Eagan, who says she was sexually abused in the 1950s by a nun at the Villa Maria boarding school in Old Frontenac, Minn. Dunford and her husband, Dan, have appealed to women's religious orders and Catholic leaders to be more forthcoming and accountable. [Photo by] Stormi Greener sgreener@startribune.com

In 1990, she wrote a letter to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which forwarded it to the Ursuline order in Missouri. She was told that the alleged perpetrator was no longer in Minnesota and no longer worked around children, and that an investigation would take place.

When the sister admitted to abusing Dunford, the Ursuline order paid for counseling for both Dunfords -- it later also returned her tuition -- and in 1997 arranged for the nun to apologize in person, Dunford and the Ursulines say.

"We talked about how what she had done had damaged us," Mary Dunford said. "When we were done, she said, 'You weren't the only one hurt,' and her provincial [supervisor] turned to her and said, 'I love you and support you.' There I was, the victim, and the sympathy was for the perpetrator."

The sister who molested Dunford continued teaching college students after the order "determined that it was a one-time offense and that there was no threat to others," said Ursuline Provincial Sister Peggy Moore.

The nun died in 1999.

Since she began telling her story, Dunford said, she has been contacted by more than 200 alleged victims of nun abuse.

A trio of young students

Bertrand and Britten claim to have been molested by Sister Benen Kent during piano lessons in the early 1960s at St. Juliana School in Chicago. In 1965, Kent was transferred to Rochester, where, Bertrand and Schwartz say, she molested them in 1967 during family visits.

Kent, who died in 2003, "insinuated herself entirely into our families, and was a trusted friend and confidante to our parents," Bertrand said.

Britten was the first to reveal the abuse. In 1991, she called Sister Dolore Rockers, president of the Rochester Franciscans, to tell her what had happened when she was 6: Kent "would rub my back, then sexually assault me with her fingers" at piano lessons.

Next to reveal her story was Schwartz, who says she didn't recognize what had happened to her as sexual abuse until late 2001, when she heard Britten's story. Kent "was considered a saint in our family," Schwartz said. "I thought it was just another uncomfortable thing I had to take."

Bertrand's memory of being molested did not fully emerge until 2002. "One morning ... my husband came up behind me and startled me, and the memory burst back," she said. "I ran to the bathroom, retching."

The women then went to the Franciscans as a trio. Despite a flurry of calls, registered letters and meetings assuring the women that the case would be investigated, their lawsuits claim, little happened.

"Then I got a letter saying she had died," Bertrand said. "That was the turning point. I said, 'Sue them.' "

Bertrand said she's convinced that Kent, who worked at many schools over her career, victimized more children. She said she has received several calls from others saying they were also victimized by Kent.

Bertrand, Britten and Schwartz are seeking at least $50,000 apiece from the Franciscans, but say their main goal is to protect others.

The Rochester Franciscans have not responded to repeated calls and e-mails.

Culture and circumstance

Cases involving nuns feature complex sociological and psychological factors, said Minneapolis psychologist Gary Schoener, a national expert on clergy sexual abuse. Women are less likely to sexually abuse children, but nuns have access to children in schools, orphanages and at music lessons, he said.

In the past, he said, "arrested social development" among some nuns, who often went directly from high school to the convent, fostered a climate where sexual touching of children and novices "occurred without anyone involved even fully understanding it was abuse."

Cases that Anderson has seen, most involving girls, occur "not because perpetrators are lesbian, but because they have access to and power over children," he said.

Author Ashley Hill, who lives in New England, told of being molested at age 7 in a New Hampshire school in her book "Habits of Sin," which also chronicles other women's stories. Since it was published in 2000, she said, she has heard from scores of alleged victims.

Hill said she found "a lot of mental illness, which made for a very destructive environment."

Susan Pavlak, 51, of West St. Paul, says that when she was in high school, she was seduced and sexually abused by a teacher who had just left her religious order. [Photo by] Elizabeth Flores eflores@startribune.com

As a 16-year-old at a St. Paul Catholic high school, Pavlak, now 51, of West St. Paul, said she was drawn into a sexual relationship with a teacher who had been released from her vows at her own request. She said that her abuser was sexually involved with another nun and that nuns "colluded within this closed, highly sexualized system to hide relationships."

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the former order of the alleged perpetrator, said via spokeswoman Ann Thompson that the woman was not part of their order when the alleged abuse occurred. However, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis arranged for Pavlak to have her tuition returned, Pavlak said.

The legal issues

Many cases alleging abuse by nuns will never go through the legal system.

Attorneys are less likely to take nun cases than cases involving male clergy, said Clohessy of SNAP, because "lawyers know that the deference shown to priests is even more intense with nuns."

And most cases cannot clear Minnesota's six-year statute of limitations on lawsuits, Anderson said.

So far, six cases with Minnesota connections have led to suits -- those of Bertrand, Britten and Schwartz; a Winona case settled in 1992 involving a woman who does not wish to go public, and two cases involving abuse at a school in Washington state run by Mankato's School Sisters of Notre Dame that were settled in 2003 and 2004.

The lawsuits against the Rochester Franciscans seek to circumvent the statute by focusing on recent recognition of the abuse and on the order's response, Anderson said.

The Rev. Kevin McDonough, vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said statutes of limitations serve "the important social purpose" of preventing lawsuits that can't be adequately defended. "One claim was 75 years old -- how can you find people and evidence to defend a case like that?" he asked.

But Bob Schwiderski, a Minnesota priest-abuse victim, said: "Extending the limit would affirm that post-traumatic stress often causes a child victim to delay reporting. Why doesn't the church work with former victims? Why is it that the victims, grown up, have to do the most important work toward accountability and prevention?"

Response and reaction

Many victims look first to their dioceses for help. In the Twin Cities, McDonough said, the church offers them counseling and help in communicating with those responsible.

"But we do not have the right to tell the nuns how to respond," he said. "Frankly, we have our own housecleaning to do on the priest abuse situation. We don't want to make it look like we're putting the spotlight on nuns to get it off of us."

Some victims have turned to the national Leadership Conference of Women Religious. But that group angered victims when it declined to adopt the U.S. Catholic bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, drafted in 2002. It has refused victims' requests to speak at its gatherings, they say.

Annmarie Sanders, communications director for the Maryland-based conference, said it has no control over how orders have handled cases, but began in the 1990s to push member orders to punish misconduct, help victims and prevent further abuse.

Spokeswomen for the orders to which alleged perpetrators belong say they have provided counseling and financial compensation to victims and have improved anti-abuse policies and education.

But those who have reported abuse say little has been done to restore trust. Bertrand, Britten, Schwartz and Dunford have asked the orders involved in their cases to look for possible other victims at the locations where the perpetrators lived and worked. The orders, citing confidentiality concerns and logistical difficulty, have refused to do so.

Is it still going on?

There have been few modern-day cases alleging abuse by nuns. The reason may simply be that there are far fewer nuns. In 1965, the number of U.S. nuns peaked at 180,000. Now there are about 75,000, many of them elderly.

Representatives of female religious orders say better education and policies have squelched the problem.

But victims' groups, attorneys and psychologists point out that clergy-abuse victims often don't come forward until middle age.

"There will always be new perpetrators," Clohessy said. "We owe it to our kids to err on the side of caution."

Meanwhile, victims find some comfort in pressing for accountability -- and in the faith almost all of them say survived the trauma.

Said Bertrand: "For the first couple of months after I remembered my abuse, I went to church with my husband. But I could not worship. A nun would walk in and I would begin shaking. ... I remain faithful, but there's a lot of rebuilding that needs to take place."

Pamela Miller 612-673-4290 pmiller@startribune.com

HELP FOR VICTIMS

Groups offering support and help to clergy-abuse victims include:

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is an advocacy group for victims, www.snapnetwork.org, 877-762-7432, www.snap-greatplains.org.

Survivors Network Minnesota is a volunteer organization of survivors of childhood sex abuse (not just clergy victims) and their supporters that works on legal and other fronts. www.survivorsnetworkmn.org, 651-215-9913.

Voice of the Faithful, an organization of lay Catholics, based in Massachusetts, seeks changes in the church in response to the sex-abuse scandal. www.twincities-votf.org, 617-558-5252.

Ashley Hill, a nun-abuse victim who wrote the 2000 book "Habits of Sin," and several others have a website called www.abusebynuns.com.

Correction Printed on June 27, 2006: This article about sexual abuse by nuns misstated which of Sister Benen Kent's victims first contacted the Franciscan nuns in Rochester, Minn. It was Christine Bertrand who contacted the order in 2002.