Nuns too – sexually abusing minors could be next scandal

Nuns are also guilty of sexually abusing minors, say survivors.

Women who were sexually abused by nuns say while the abuse of boys by priests is being widely documented, their trauma is being overlooked.

“It’s a spiritual rape, it really is,” one says. “It steals your faith. I envy people who have faith.”

“Nuns kind of get a free ride.”

This survivor says her abuse at the hands of her teacher (a nun) began when she was 13.

“She always, always described it as ‘God’s love’ — ‘this is God’s love, nobody else is going to understand it.”

“You think of women as being nurturing, and you trust them more.

“And when it’s done gently, and sweetly, and they paint it to your benefit, you believe it. It’s a true form of brainwashing. I have to believe that, because how else could I have been so blinded?”

Another survivor who has disclosed her abuse says she was a 15-year old schoolgirl when she met the nun who abused her. The nun, who was 36 at the time “had taken the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. She stole from my body, my mind and my soul. The woman was a thief who did not keep her vows.”

She says at the time she felt alienated from her family and came to see the nun as her mentor. The two became close.

Then, one day, the nun invited the 13-year old to a shore house, and slipped something into her tea.

“She took me into the bedroom and I passed out,” the survivor says. “I was not conscious. I was not able to make a decision.” She says this was the first of many sexual assaults.

She also says at the time the nun abused her, she had already been raped by her uncle, a priest. As an adult alcoholic, she initially blamed her drinking on that incident. “And yet [the nun] was the first person that gave me alcohol and drugs. Continually,” she says.

A third survivor, now aged 67, says her abuse began when she was 15, when she was repeatedly raped by a nun.

She says for years afterwards she lived a life on the edge of falling apart. Much of her life has been spent trapped in a state of rage, depression and agoraphobia, unable to leave the house or to leave her daughter, who is now 36.

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