Sr. Mary Andre
Given name Christine McCardle. Married name after leaving the Dominicans was Muriel A. Muraskin. Entered the Dominican order in Caldwell NJ in 1957. Professed final vows in 1964. Accused in 1967 of sexually abusing a girl in NJ, beginning in 1965 when the girl was 12. Her parents met with the Order’s mother superior, who at first didn’t believe the accusation. Letters from Sr. Andre to the girl and the nun’s journals confirmed the abuse. Sr. Andre had been assigned in Mobile, AL before Newark and was transferred to CT in 1967. The church paid for the girl’s counseling; she died by suicide in 1989. Sr. Andre left religious life in about 1969 and moved to CO, where she worked in a hospital lab until her retirement in 1998. She died in 2014. Per a lawsuit in 10/2021, Sr. Andre sexually abused a female student at St. Catherine’s in Hillside NJ, beginning when the girl was age 11 in 1964. The abuse allegedly occurred in the parish rectory and the girl’s home. Further, Sr. Andre wrote the girl letters, called her on the phone every night, and gave her gifts. A neighbor told the girl’s mother in 1967 that she believed the nun was abusing the girl. The mother reported the abuse to the mother superior of the Dominicans, Sr. Carmelita, who was also the school principal. Sr. Carmelita allegedly threatened the mother not to report the abuse. The girl learned that Sr. Andre also abused one of her friends.
- Plaintiff v Archdiocese of Newark et al, New Jersey Superior Court, 10.27.21
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