Catholic Church and the Priest--but what about the Nuns

sandramaac

<font color=blue>Needs to look harder...<br><font
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I just got done watching the film "The Magdalene Sisters', which chronicles the abuse young women suffered at the hands of nuns in Ireland.

As a catholic who attended catholic grade school, I can tell you I have some blood curdling stories about the nuns in my grade school, and the terrible awful, mean and abusive things that they did to the students. These were sick and truly demented women, who truly gained pleasure from belittling and beating kids. Thankfully the order of nuns that taught at the prep school I attended for high school was unbelievable wonderful group of women.

With all of the stories surrounding the priest I wonder why more hasn't come out about the abuse by nuns. Does anyone else have terrible memories and stories about these nuns?
 
Yes, I also went to Catholic school and had bad experiences with nuns. I'm not sure why you don't hear about it. I guess it pales in comparison with the sexual abuse by the priests, but you're right there were a lot of nuns that were very mean and abusive (both verbally and physically). I don't know if that stuff goes on today, because I think kids are more likely to come forward. Back when I went to school if I would have told no one would have believed me. When I tell people the stories today, no one believes me. Go figure :confused3
 
My sister does--but it isn't anything to warrant a lawsuit. And her principal nun lady person--was a very very mean nun.
 

about the nuns from my Catholic School childhood and high school were they seemed so old when I was young. And now I find out at reunions,etc that they were only in their 30s or 40s at the time! I personally didn't have any physical or emotional or verbal abuse from them, but at the same time school officials (parochial or not) were able to discipline more back then and especially Catholic schools had reputation of not putting up with ANYTHING. I remember having to kneel on the kneelers during First Friday mass to check that our hemline touched the floor. I can remember lining up in the gym by 5th grade before p.e. class started where the nun would check for make-up with a white gloved finger.
 
Went to Catholic schools in the mid 70's and always had good nuns.

Now I had a couple of regular teachers (not religious) who could hold a candle to all the nasty nun stories I've ever heard!!! :earseek:
 
I went to a public school where a male teacher had a spanking board that you got to sign if he ever hit you with it.

Our nuns (now moved on) at my kid's previous parochial school were the best. The kids loved them espeically Sr. Rita. She was SOOOO sweet, she got lots of hugs.
 
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In my 12 years of Catholic education, I only had one scary nun. She was truly an evil person. She'd often tell me (and other kids as well) I'd never amount to anything. She would pick the one thing you did well and rip you apart for it. For me, it was drawing....I was a good artist from the time I was tiny, and she'd tell me that no one ever made a decent living from art.

Fortunately I met one of my childhood mentors the next year, Sister Mary Elizabeth. She encouraged my love of art and was one of the most gentle people I've ever known. :goodvibes I think of her often and wonder if she is still alive, and if so, how she is doing. She truly had a gift for teaching...she made each of her students feel so special.

I saw ""The Magdalene Sisters" too and was shocked and appalled and heartbroken from what I saw. I'm so fortunate that my Catholic school upbringing did not mirror that of what was in the movie or anywhere even close. Most of the nuns were strict disciplinarians, but they more or less diciplined with a "look" -- they'd give you one, and you knew you'd better shut your mouth.
 
I never had a mean nun in my life. Some were more strict, but so were some of the lay teachers. I had many very, very sweet nuns...Sr. Albertine, Sr. Justine, Sr. MaryAnn. Especially in High School...they were great. I'm 37 years old so we're talking the late 70's-mid 80's when I was in Jr. High and High School. I went to public school K-5th. My kids have gone to Catholic School Pre-K thru 8th grade and there isn't a nun to be found anywhere. There are still many that teach at my old high school, which is a very prestigious college prep school.

On the other hand, my mother's stories about physical and mental cruelty from the nuns in Catholic elementary school in the late 40's and 50's are horrible. They were especially mean to my mother because her parents were divorced and she was poor.
 
I only really remember one "mean nun" in all my years of Catholic school. And she was the principal, so her meanness was probably more just a childhood fear of the principal, whether be it a nun or a lay person.

Actually, most of the nuns I had for teachers were really cool and a few of them were pretty liberal in their thinking, at least as far as nuns go. One of our closest family friends in a nun -- she's literally like a member of our family. :goodvibes
 
Divamomto3 said:
IOn the other hand, my mother's stories about physical and mental cruelty from the nuns in Catholic elementary school in the late 40's and 50's are horrible. They were especially mean to my mother because her parents were divorced and she was poor.

My mother had some horror stories too. I remember she told me once that this nun was smacking her knuckles with a ruler when the ruler flipped up and knocked the nun's habit off her head! :earseek: My mother ended up getting it tenfold for that. :earseek:

I do think the generation you were brought up in might dictate what kind of Catholic school experience you might have had.
 
My mother had one or two nuns she was affraid of. One threw an erraser at her after getting frustrated that my mom couldn't understand a math problem, and that was when she was in high school! But she said most were just strict.

My dad never said anything about being afraid of the sister's, but then my dad was the type of kid that wasn't afraid of anyone or anything! :)
 
Chicago526 said:
My mother had one or two nuns she was affraid of. One threw an erraser at her after getting frustrated that my mom couldn't understand a math problem, and that was when she was in high school! But she said most were just strict.

My dad never said anything about being afraid of the sister's, but then my dad was the type of kid that wasn't afraid of anyone or anything! :)

Most boys were taught by priests back in the day, that is probably why you didn't hear anything about nuns from your father.
 
I didn't go to Catholic school but I had some of the same experiences at the very strict private school I attended.

The headmaster was an absolute terror. He had a cane, and used it liberally on the boys. Thankful, he was also a sexist and drew the line at canning the girls. He let the teachers use paddles on us instead.

My mother was the type who always backed up the teacher, no matter what. But it even gave her pause the day I got paddled so hard that the teacher broke the paddle across my hands.
 
snoopy said:
Most boys were taught by priests back in the day, that is probably why you didn't hear anything about nuns from your father.

Good point. Co-ed Catholic schools are a relatively new concept. I know my high school wasn't co-ed until a few years before I got there (in the 80's). Before that, it was an all-girls school.
 
Bob Slydell said:
Good point. Co-ed Catholic schools are a relatively new concept. I know my high school wasn't co-ed until a few years before I got there (in the 80's). Before that, it was an all-girls school.

Yup, I graduated in 1981, our school was the first co-ed high Catholic high school in the city. Many still are not.

But back in the 40's and maybe 50's, Catholic grammar schools were segregated as well. My Dad went to an all boys Catholic grammar school taught and run by priests, my mom to an all girl Catholic grammar school taught and run by nuns. I think it was like that everywhere, but maybe it was just in Baltimore, the city they (and I) went to school in.
 
I went to public school in the 60s and 70s and the teachers were guilty of some pretty horrifying behavior. Maybe no one talks about the nuns of old because what they were doing to their poor students wasn't that different from what other teachers were doing to their poor students.

Becuase of what I saw in school, I will NEVER take the attitude of "the teacher is always right." I had some teachers with true anger and sadism issues.
 
I graduated from an all girl Catholic high school in the Bronx in 1985 and I believe it is still that way today. Also, the all boy high school that both my DH and brother attended is still all boys. You would think in today's day and age they still would not be segregated, but there are some that are, at least where I'm from. I'm glad to read not everyone had bad experiences with Catholic schools. I'm also glad that I now live in an area where my kids can go to public school. I'm not sure I could send them to a Catholic school thinking back to what I had gone through.
 
My memories of the nasty nuns are far greater than any good memories. Left me an emotional mess during my grade school days. In fact, I used to stutter horribly (let's just say that you should NEVER tell a nun in first grade that you didn't know how to read...she pulled me in front of the class and just mocked and belittled me. When all the kids teased me, nothing was done about it). I was so scared to go to school, I would cry walking TO school in first grade.....and I was too terrified of Sister Kevin to tell anyone!! My mom would walk me to school and I remember just sobbing. I would even get physically sick I was so scared. :guilty:

I don't know whether the times are different today...whether parents just didn't question....but my mother never seemed to try to find out what was wrong or got involved with finding a solution. Whether it's because of what I went through as a child and my frustration at no one being able to help, but I am (quite loudly at times! :blush: ) the first one to contact the school if I think there is something wrong with the way a teacher handles my kids. My youngest dd, in 2nd grade, had a teacher who I would SWEAR was this nun (minus the habit!). My daughter started having nightmares about school, didn't want to go and would cry............I was on the phone with the teacher immediately and when she simply told me that she "was teased as a child and that's the way she handles the kids", I went straight to the principal.
 
My father, uncle and aunt all have "wonderful" stories about the nuns who taught them. Of course, I don't deny that my father or his siblings didn't deserve what they got. I'm sure they deserved each ruler to the knuckles they received, etc. b/c I know they weren't angels.

But, it is a good question raised re. abuse by nuns.
 

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