Former Nun of the Sisters of St. Ursula, Who Was Sexually Abused As a Child by Her High School Principal (also a Nun of the Sisters of St. Ursula), Seeks Validation and Justice

Road to Recovery
June 4, 2014

http://www.road-to-recovery.org/

The Board of Trustees of Notre Dame School refuses to believe an alumna’s account of sexual abuse, and the Sisters of St. Ursula, who administer the school, have ignored her requests for justice

Graduates and parents of Notre Dame School will be asked to join former nun’s call for justice from Notre Dame School and the Sisters of St. Ursula

What: A demonstration outside a Manhattan Catholic girls’ high school graduation

When: Thursday, June 5, 2014 from 5:00 PM until 6:30 PM

Where: On the sidewalk outside Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003

Who: Cecilia Springer is an 83 year-old former nun and graduate of Notre Dame School, class of 1948, who was approximately 14 years old and a sophomore at Notre Dame School when the Principal of the school, Sr. Mary Andrew (aka/ Sr. Frances Doyle), followed her up the school staircase from the lunchroom and sexually abused her. The sexual abuse occurred on more than one occasion. Ms. Springer, the former Sister Mary Grace, learned that at least one other classmate experienced similar sexual abuse by Sr. Mary Andrew. Her advocate from Road to Recovery, Robert M. Hoatson, will be present as will fellow clergy sexual abuse survivors.

Why: Cecilia Springer became a Sister of St. Ursula following graduation from college even though she had suffered sexual abuse as a child by her high school Principal, Sr. Mary Andrew, S.U., at Notre Dame School. She left the Sisters of St. Ursula many years later after it became untenable for her to remain in a religious order of women that did nothing about sexual abuse at their school, Notre Dame. Cecilia Springer was interviewed by representatives of the Notre Dame School Board of Trustees and their lawyer, but they have refused to help her in any way in her senior years. Those attending the graduation exercises of Notre Dame School will be asked to prevail upon Notre Dame School and the Sisters of St. Ursula to do the right thing by acknowledging that Cecilia Springer is, indeed, a victim of sexual abuse by Sr. Mary Andrew, apologizing to her for what happened, and assisting her in living a more stress-free life.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:29 AM

Andrew Sullivan on Mass Grave of Irish Babies ..."

UNITED STATES

Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Andrew Sullivan on Mass Grave of Irish Babies Born to "Fallen Women": "That Is Not a Sign of a Church Gone Astray. It's a Sign of a Church Given Over to Evil"

Andrew Sullivan looks at the discovery of the bodies of 800 babies in a mass grave (they were stuffed inside a septic tank) behind a home for "fallen women" run by the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam, Ireland, and asks why such a kerfuffle ensued when the U.N. Rapporteur on Torture tried to indict the Vatican for "crimes against humanity" because of its cover-up of the mass rape and abuse of children. As he notes, what can possibly describe the story now emerging from Tuam except the term "crime against humanity"?

These children were born to "fallen women" who bore them while living at the facility of the Bon Secours nuns, and who were then left in the care of the nuns when these women moved on to new lives after serving a term of penance as virtual slave laborers for the nuns. Documents indicate that many of these children died of outright neglect and malnutrition — and when they died, their bodies were stuffed into a septic tank.

The heart of the matter for Andrew Sullivan:

To my mind, these foul crimes against women and children, along with the brutal stigmatization of gay people as "objectively disordered", remain a testament to how the insidious, neurotic and usually misogynist fixation on sex has distorted and destroyed Christianity in ways we are only now beginning to recover from. For what we see here is the consequence of elevating sexual sin above all others, of fixating on human sexuality as the chief source of evil in the world, and of a grotesquely distorted sense of moral priorities, where stigmatization of the sexual sinner vastly outweighs even something as basic as care for an innocent child.