I am now 55 and I know that this behavior no longer exists, but I went 8 years to a Catholic grade school that was basically brutal. Although I was very well educated, the amount of physical abuse that was inflcted, only on the boys, by the nuns was outrageous. I remember being beat for not bringing in 20 cents to join a some sort of society for the Blessed Virgin. I saw a classmate of mine beaten so badly that it left him with a permanent nervous facial tick. His dire cirme was leaving a copy of his test results on his desk from one class where a sister from the next class saw it and confiscated it. I suspect that there was something wrong about the test questions that got the first sister in trouble for some reason because when she came in the next day she beat the crap out of my friend. My ex-wife tells stories of children who were abused (made to drink moldy holy water) because they did not leave room on their school desk seat for their guardian angle to sit besde them.
2007-07-06
11:06:28
·
13 answers
·
asked by
Rider M
2
in
Society & Culture
➔ Religion & Spirituality
Really, I am not making this up.
2007-07-06
11:20:59 ·
update #1
First off, I did not make this stuff up. Just talk to Catholics my age if you don't believe me, they all have stories.
Now I picked the best answer, but it raises an even bigger question of why someone who went thru this would send their own kids to the same, though perhaps less harsh, processing.
2007-07-07
09:33:02 ·
update #2
Oh yes!
I have PLENTY of abuse stories--physical, mental, and emotional--from nuns in preschool through eighth grade. By the time I hit high school and through my four years in a Catholic college, I was largely immune to anything a nun could do.
I survived it intact because my dad, who wasn't Catholic, helped me put it into perspective from the very beginning. He explained--whenever I brought home gruesome stories about being beaten half senseless for being left-handed, for being the only black child, for being too small to see something, for stumbling in line on the way to the confessional, for forgetting my chapel veil, for leaving out a pencil, book, nickel, sheet of paper, etc. on my desk, for chewing gum, talking out of turn, knowing an answer when a boy didn't, or some other minor infraction--that these were poorly educated, sexually frustrated family rejects that immersed their entire lives into their identity as educators.
It helped tremendously. When I was told that I was a 'whelp of the devil' (for being left-handed) and that I wouldn't go to heaven, dad told me that nuns go to a DIFFERENT heaven, and therefore that didn't count. Over the years, I learned to laugh at them behind their backs while keeping a straight face. At school, all of us kids stuck together and even suffered mass beatings when the nuns couldn't figure out who did something tiny that they built up into the equivalent of a multiple axe murder. . . it was great life training, because I learned how to spot a neurotic compulsive schizophrenic a mile away, and I've never been victimized by nutcases in any environment since.
They say you've truly survived Catholic schools when you send your kids. I sent my only child, and she survived it too!
2007-07-06 11:24:13
·
answer #1
·
answered by nora22000 7
·
3⤊
0⤋
My god-mother was horribly abused by nuns, who would make her do her last nights homework on the chalk board, imagine being punished because her homework was completed properly, then her dad would come into the school and beat his daughter too, her mother made her wear funny clothes. A tabloid spoke of the brutal beatings my god mother received. I am not Catholic, by my birth grandmother made me go to a Catholic school for two years, this was in Seattle and my experiences were even worse. I left and found a Catholic Essene School run by really cool monks and their nuns in the forest. The education was good there like being with St Francis of Assisi . My God-mother is now some type of World Health Expert in trends of pandemic engineering and medical insurance. I guess keeping her cool in an irate atmosphere brought her to where she is today, caring for others in a hostile world. I also went to a more Cloistered Catholic College, to study business and antibodies like Hildegard von Bingen, so I guess that is why nuns now declare me as very psychotic and delusional. I was never baptized.
2015-05-20 16:31:48
·
answer #2
·
answered by ? 1
·
1⤊
0⤋
I went twelve years to two different Catholic schools. I spent two summers boarding with a third. Three different orders of nuns. I never experiences anything but kindness from any of these nuns. I never heard or saw any corporal punishment, physical, mental or emotional abuse. Sure they were strict but not mean in any way. I was not a good student, not rich, not athletic but artistic. I am forever grateful to the nuns who saw my talents and encouraged me to develop them.
2015-06-28 09:16:09
·
answer #3
·
answered by ? 1
·
0⤊
1⤋
All I know is that they led cushy lives while struggling factory workers were guilted into sending their children to their schools and paying tuition. They had room, board, religious retreats, healthcare for life and didn't have to answer to deal with unruly students. Maybe in the old days they ran charitable organizations, but with the advent of free public education, they just became a burden to the parishoners. Some of them had mental problems and would never had made it in the public school system.
2014-10-24 05:56:35
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
1⤊
1⤋
I am 59; it is January 2015 and I am now expose the evils of the Catholic Church. In the mid-1960 s, I learned to hate the Catholic Church because of abuse by nuns and priests. If there is a hell, they will be there forever. I was in 7th grade and I did not line up numbers properly in my notebook; Sister Barbara, a short fat, nun, hit me in the back of my head with a math textbook. Later in the day, she yelled out, "hey Hack, You re head alright, my book ain t." The whole class laughed. In addition, Sister Joseph the principle screamed at me for not being a good enough patrol guard. Then I went to Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx. Me and another boy got to school late. The other boy got away. Father McCormick asked me if I knew the other boy and I said no. He asked me to come into the office where he began to interrogate me. He asked me if I knew the boy. I said no; he slapped across the face with an open hand. He did this three times in total. He finally let me go. All this because I did not know a boys name. I hate the Catholic Church. It is a shame because the rest of my family adores the Church and I hate them and all religions. Religion is man made bullshit in efforts to control people. In 2013, my grammar School, Blessed Sacrament School in the Bronx is now closed for good. Martin Scorsese went to Cardinal Hayes High School. Is it any wonder why his movies are dark. I hate the church. By the way, Regis Philbin and George Carlin also went to Cardinal Hayes at 650 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York. One day, Cardinal Hayes will be closed. The Roman Catholic Church is a farce. I once thought of writing a book called: "Would Jesus Live in The Vatican?" The answer is "hell no."
2015-02-08 08:15:56
·
answer #5
·
answered by ? 1
·
1⤊
0⤋
Starting in 3rd grade, I wasn't cute anymore. The nuns beat me, kicked me and slapped me on a regular basis. I was the youngest of 5 and I couldn't measure up to any of my siblings according to the ones who abused me. I was made to feel stupid by this group of women. I am 60 years old and I am a woman.
2014-10-20 12:16:50
·
answer #6
·
answered by ? 1
·
4⤊
0⤋
I went to Catholic junior high school. If we did anything bad we were wacked on the back of our hands (not the palms) with the "board of education". It was a wooden hand held cutting board with those words painted on it. Some nun probably painted it with loving care. I also remember that the boys were singled out for the harder physical abuse. I remember one of the nuns hitting this one boy in the face and head because he couldn't learn something. The nuns also continually sided with the cliquish girls who were mean to the nerdy girls. My sister was one of the nerdy girls and they never reprimanded them for taunting my sister. They would just laugh and joke with them after. It was a dark time in my life. It made me turn away from God for several years afterward.
2007-07-06 11:14:54
·
answer #7
·
answered by Anonymous
·
4⤊
0⤋
look up the catholic Magdalen laundries in Ireland some of the stuff that happened to the women in them was atrocious and only a few of the perpetrators have been caught up with there are tons of women now writing their stories and a couple have even been made into film
hopes this helps
the last laundry closed in the 90s
2007-07-06 11:29:31
·
answer #8
·
answered by Anonymous
·
5⤊
2⤋
tjhere was abuse the nuns humiliated and beat students all the time I forgive them but they must answer to God
2015-03-02 11:06:13
·
answer #9
·
answered by ? 2
·
0⤊
0⤋
I'm sorry but your stories sound suspect to me.
I'm Catholic, and I know that there was corporal punishment and it was probably more severe in private schools. But to the point you claim...seems like exaggeration to me
I went to public elementary school and the principal there was able to spank children. He was a huge man and we were all scared of him. The stories were endless on what to expect if you were "punished' by Principal Bomb. Yes, that was his last name. I heard horror stories from classmates and I was sure he was the most evil man ever.
My point is that children can exaggerate. This isn't to belittle the true stories of those that may have suffered abuse...but overall I feel that the stories have gotten bigger with time and with outlawing corporal punishment in schools.
2007-07-06 11:13:50
·
answer #10
·
answered by Misty 7
·
2⤊
14⤋