One thought on ““He’s very good with the kids.””

  1. I just read, and highly recommend, “Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, A Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice” by Christine Kenneally. It examines St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Vermont, and touches on several other Catholic Church-run orphanages in the USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Scotland.

    In regards to St. Joseph, Kenneally found that from 1935 until the orphanage closed in 1974, at least 6 of the 8 resident chaplains–the priests who oversaw the orphanage–had been accused of sexual abuse. Even more to the point, there were only two years in the history of the orphanage in which the priest in charge did not turn out to be a publicly accused sexual abuser.

    Church officials did not cooperate in either Kenneally’s investigation, nor that of the state of Vermont, but stalled, lied and obfuscated at every turn. The Sisters of Providence, who ran the daily activities in the orphanage and who were implicated in the sexual abuse as well as physical and emotional abuse, also refused to cooperate. The did, however, “pray for peace and healing.”

    Kenneally concluded that the Catholic Church is “not playing the same game as everyone else. All this time, survivors have been pursuing justice, but the goal of the Catholic Church is unrelated to the causes and ideals of individuals. The goal of the Church is suprahuman and is measured in centuries: it has been working to control history.”

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